With hundreds of millions of dollars at risk in Bay Area, lawsuit against Trump grows over grant funds

As the Trump administration continues its attempts to impose conditions on federal grants a coalition of local governments including the counties of Santa Clara Alameda and San Mateo is asking a federal judge to block the U S Department of Vitality and Human Services from adding stipulations to grants that could put hundreds of millions of dollars at menace in the region Since taking office earlier this year President Donald Trump has issued a slew of executive orders that require grant recipients to comply with his agenda for example prohibiting programs that aid abortion gender ideology and diversity equity and inclusion and ensuring compliance with federal immigration enforcement An amended complaint filed on July builds on an initial lawsuit from May that opposed conditions being placed on grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Expansion and the Department of Transportation The lawsuit led by King County Washington was filed in the U S District Court for the Western District of Washington On June U S District Court Judge Barbara J Rothstein granted a preliminary injunction in the initial occurrence preventing the Trump administration from imposing conditions on federal grants from HUD and the DOT Now the coalition is looking to protect funding from HHS which is the largest grant-making agency in the United States According to the amended lawsuit the Trump administration s unlawful attempts to repurpose federal grant programs established by Congress harm Plaintiffs by threatening more than billion in already-awarded and soon to be awarded funds across HUD DOT and HHS Kavita Narayan the chief assistant county counsel for Santa Clara County stated federal law requires that any conditions placed on grants must be related to the purpose of the funding Trump s limitations she explained in an interview in addition to being antithetical to our values have absolutely no relationship to wellness care funding Vitality care as a safety net provider of county services is something that we really care deeply about and view as one of our bulk fundamental responsibilities that the group counts on us for Several other Bay Area jurisdictions that have joined in the lawsuit including San Jose Oakland and Pacifica Santa Clara County and San Francisco stand to see the biggest fiscal impacts if Trump is able to add conditions on HHS grants Santa Clara County receives more than million in grant funding annually from HHS with two-thirds of that going to the county s social services agency to endorsement child abuse prevention initiatives foster young programs adoption services and programs for seniors and those with disabilities The remaining million in HHS funding goes toward a variety of masses strength programs that aim to prevent infectious sickness and help maternal and child medical among other programs Santa Clara Valley Healthcare the county-run soundness and hospital system is also facing an estimated billion in lost revenue in the coming years due to cuts to Medicaid in what Trump dubbed his big beautiful bill San Francisco receives roughly million of HHS grants annual including million from the Centers for Syndrome Control and Prevention million from Medical Support and Services Administration million from Substance Abuse and Mental Physical condition Services Administration and million from the Administration for Children and Families These grants provide billions in funding that help our city assistance early childhood progress medical services safe and effective transportation and housing to our most of vulnerable San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu noted in a news release These new grant conditions not only violate the Constitution but they also have nothing to do with the purpose or performance of these grants This is part of Trump s strategy to push his extreme political agenda by threatening local programs and budgets The latest complaint over HHS grants is part of a slew of lawsuits filed by Santa Clara County and San Francisco against the Trump administration this year Local governments are increasingly becoming parties to these types of lawsuits as the Supreme Court in the past few days limited federal judges power to grant nationwide injunctions