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Inside Medicine: Trump Administration suffers first setback in its war on US public health. [View all]
Inside Medicine - Trump Administration suffers first setback in its war on US public health.
Federal grants for scientific and medical research must continue for now.
The lawyers did their thing. Chaos temporarily mitigated.
Jeremy Faust, MD
Jan 29, 2025
American Public Health Association, others lawyer up and win the first legal battle against Trump’s assault on US public health infrastructure.
Monday, President Trump blocked all federal grants, which could have quickly caused some major medical and research institutions to make substantial layoffs to avoid the brink of financial ruin.
Then the lawyers stepped up. A group of organizations affected by the executive order including the National Council of Nonprofits and the American Public Health Association—the latter of which I am a proud member—sued the Trump Administration today. Here is their complaint.
The outcome was favorable. Within hours, US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan had ordered that the status quo (i.e., a universe in which the US Federal Government actually pays its obligations to established grantees) be maintained through at least February 3rd, and maybe beyond. This was the first real setback to the Trump Administration’s full-on assault on the US public health infrastructure. Lawyers saved a lot of jobs today.
A temporary reprieve from total chaos.
Judge AliKhan pointed out that the government itself didn’t seem to know the scope of its own action. True enough. Prior to the stay, many of us in medicine, science, and public health spent the day trying to sort out just how far-reaching the order was.
Was Medicaid affected? Nobody seemed to know, which caused a great deal of chaos. A press release from Georgetown University pointed out the uncertainty (and “callous indifference”) of the original order. Indeed, Medicare and Social Security had been specifically named as exceptions to the grant freeze, leaving Medicaid and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) as potential targets, which would harm millions of Americans immediately.
/snip
Federal grants for scientific and medical research must continue for now.
The lawyers did their thing. Chaos temporarily mitigated.
Jeremy Faust, MD
Jan 29, 2025
American Public Health Association, others lawyer up and win the first legal battle against Trump’s assault on US public health infrastructure.
Monday, President Trump blocked all federal grants, which could have quickly caused some major medical and research institutions to make substantial layoffs to avoid the brink of financial ruin.
Then the lawyers stepped up. A group of organizations affected by the executive order including the National Council of Nonprofits and the American Public Health Association—the latter of which I am a proud member—sued the Trump Administration today. Here is their complaint.
The outcome was favorable. Within hours, US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan had ordered that the status quo (i.e., a universe in which the US Federal Government actually pays its obligations to established grantees) be maintained through at least February 3rd, and maybe beyond. This was the first real setback to the Trump Administration’s full-on assault on the US public health infrastructure. Lawyers saved a lot of jobs today.
A temporary reprieve from total chaos.
Judge AliKhan pointed out that the government itself didn’t seem to know the scope of its own action. True enough. Prior to the stay, many of us in medicine, science, and public health spent the day trying to sort out just how far-reaching the order was.
Was Medicaid affected? Nobody seemed to know, which caused a great deal of chaos. A press release from Georgetown University pointed out the uncertainty (and “callous indifference”) of the original order. Indeed, Medicare and Social Security had been specifically named as exceptions to the grant freeze, leaving Medicaid and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) as potential targets, which would harm millions of Americans immediately.
/snip
5 replies
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