Democrats Urge Trump Administration to Repeal $602 Million CDC Grant Cuts

By Jim Thomas | Thursday, 19 February 2026 07:25 PM EST

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and other Democrats have urged the Trump administration to reverse a planned rescission of approximately $602 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-related federal health grants.

In a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senators warned that the cuts would undermine public health infrastructure in four states. The lawmakers noted that the administration had “allegedly deemed the $600 million in grant funding as ‘inconsistent with agency priorities'” and argued the move would threaten “essential public health infrastructure,” including testing and treatment for “lethal diseases, such as HIV.”

The senators also pointed out that no explanation was provided for why the affected grants were considered inconsistent.

According to reports, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed the CDC and the Department of Transportation to rescind a combined $1.5 billion in grants from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota earlier this month. An OMB spokesperson at the time stated the rescissions targeted “woke” healthcare grants in “states fraught with waste and mismanagement.”

Court filings by the four states describe an OMB “Targeting Directive” issued between February 1 and February 4. The complaint cites an OMB spokesperson confirming the administration directed the CDC to rescind $602 million from the states. HHS notified Congress on February 9 of its intention to terminate a broad set of CDC grants in those states.

A temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah on February 12 barred the administration from moving forward for 14 days, running through approximately 4:45 p.m. on February 26 unless extended or replaced with a different order.

The targeted funds included $3 million to Colorado for addressing COVID-19 disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups, $5.2 million to a Chicago children’s hospital for increasing HIV prevention medication use, and $500,000 to the University of California to evaluate state-level laws preventing sexual and intimate partner violence among gender and sexual minorities.

The senators referenced other recent funding actions they described as abrupt, including an attempt to terminate thousands of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grants totaling about $2 billion. That effort was reversed within a day. Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations ranking member Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., stated that her understanding was there had been “an intervention at the White House” for the cancellations, which she described as possibly a one-day issue.

An official who was not authorized to speak on the matter confirmed the grant cancellations were being rescinded.

The senators who signed the unpublished letter demanding reversal of the rescissions included Schiff, Baldwin, and Democrats Alex Padilla of California; Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota; Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado; Patty Murray of Washington, as well as Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.