Attorney General Ellison sues Trump Administration over illegal NIH funding cuts, delays for medical and public health research
NIH has awarded tens of millions of dollars to Minnesota in 2025: grant terminations will disrupt valuable research
April 4, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) – Attorney General Ellison today joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general in suing the Trump Administration in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts over its unlawful attempt to disrupt grant funding issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The lawsuit challenges the Administration’s unreasonable and intentional delays in reviewing NIH grant applications, as well as its termination of hundreds of already-issued grants.
“Congress created the National Institutes of Health, tasked them with conducting crucial public health research, and passed the funding for them to do so,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Donald Trump and his administration cannot just ignore the will of Congress and unilaterally slash funding for that life-saving medical research. As I have said numerous times already, I do not wake up every morning looking for excuses to sue Trump. Unfortunately, his administration continues to willfully violate the law, so I will continue to meet them in court.”
Typically, NIH grant applications must undergo two layers of review: 1) review by a “study section” of subject-matter experts who assess the scientific merit of the proposal and 2) review by an advisory council that considers funding availability and agency priorities. Since January, the Administration has cancelled upcoming meetings for both of these review bodies and has delayed the scheduling of future meetings. Further, NIH has indefinitely withheld issuing final decisions on applications that have already received approval from the relevant study section and advisory council. Currently, the plaintiff states are awaiting decisions on billions of dollars in requested research funding.
In the complaint, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition also allege that NIH has recently terminated large swaths of already-issued grants for projects that are currently underway based on the projects’ perceived connection to “DEI,” “transgender issues,” “vaccine hesitancy,” or another topic disfavored by the current Administration. In boilerplate letters issued to the grants’ recipients, NIH claims that each cancelled project “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” With these shoddy explanations, the complaint alleges, the Trump Administration has clawed back millions of dollars that have already been awarded to address important public health needs.
As a result of the Administration’s delays and terminations, the states allege that their public research institutions have experienced significant harm. In Minnesota, according to NIH’s own database, NIH has awarded tens of millions of dollars to institutions in Minnesota in 2025, primarily the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. Termination of those grants—or delays in the grant review process—will disrupt valuable research at Minnesota institutions.
Attorney General Ellison and the coalition of attorneys general argue that by postponing meetings, delaying the review of pending applications, failing to issue final recommendations, and terminating issued grants, NIH is failing to meet its statutory obligations and violating applicable regulations. Further, the coalition argues that the Administration does not have the authority to unilaterally decline spending congressionally appropriated funds.
The coalition is asking the Court to compel the Administration to promptly review and issue decisions on delayed grant applications and prohibit them from terminating already-awarded grants.
On February 10, Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Administration for its attempts to unilaterally cut “indirect cost” reimbursements for NIH grants at nearly every research institution in the country. On March 5, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the Administration, preventing it from cutting the funding as the case proceeds.
Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing today’s lawsuit, which was led by the Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
