Sixteen state attorneys general are suing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over research grant terminations—the second major lawsuit challenging the funding cancellations filed against the agencies this week.
The lawsuit’s defendants include HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., plus almost all of the NIH's 27 institutes, according to documents filed April 4 (PDF) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The sixteen states are asking for preliminary and permanent injunctions that would block the grant cancellations and require the health agencies to review delayed applications.
The suit argues the cancellations are “unlawful,” and the plaintiffs “seek relief for the unreasonable and intentional delays currently plaguing the grant-application process," according to the filing.
“Once again, the Trump administration is putting politics before public health and risking lives and livelihoods in the process,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs, said in an April 4 statement. “Millions of Americans depend on our nation's research institutions for treatments and cures to the diseases that devastate families every day.”
“The decision to cut these funds is an attack on science, public health and medical innovation—and I won't stand for it,” James continued. “We are suing to restore these critical funds because the people of New York, and the entire nation, deserve better.”
The plaintiffs are top attorneys from Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
The HHS told Fierce Biotech it does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of another legal case filed Wednesday against the NIH and the HHS, plus Bhattacharya and RFK Jr. The plaintiffs in that case include the American Public Health Association and several researchers who claim that over $1.1 billion in grant money has been illegally revoked. The researchers aim to reverse and prevent further cancellations.
Shortly after President Donald Trump took office this January, the White House rolled out an initiative designed to slash billions from NIH grants. Those specific cuts centered around "indirect costs,” such as funds for facilities, equipment and administrative expenses. The administration is currently facing three federal lawsuits over that move.
Under Trump, the health agencies have also started to pull funding for science that doesn’t align with his executive orders, which declare that the U.S. government only recognizes two sexes and demand that diversity efforts are dismantled.
Historically, the NIH has had a yearly budget of nearly $48 billion, making the agency the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.