AG Brown, AG Campbell, AG Anthony Brown, and AG Nick Brown co-led 16 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for failing to disperse grant funds and for unlawfully terminating existing grants for medical and public health research institutions across the country. Despite Congressional direction, the NIH has drastically reduced its funding to advance the United States’ understanding of human disease and potential treatments. As a result, California universities have begun curtailing biomedical research and delaying the hiring of new staff and students who depend on NIH funding.

“In their unlawful withholding and terminating of medical and public health research grants, the Trump Administration is upending not only the critical work being done today, but the promise of progress for future generations. Through research, we save lives, improve public wellbeing and create new economic opportunities that support a vibrant economy. Let me be clear: in California, NIH funding creates over 50,000 jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity. Over the decades, this funding has brought humanity the eradication of polio, discovery of the gene that causes breast and ovarian cancer, and the transformation of HIV from a fatal disease into one people can live with. Gutting NIH funding is a deep loss to innovation and progress built upon for decades — and it’s illegal. My office is proudly leading the charge to demand that the Trump Administration immediately restore funding to the important work being done in labs, schools, and hospitals across the nation.”- AG Bonta