The pandemic may be over, but the battle to address long-term and other COVID issues is ongoing, as a group of Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. The coalition of AGs want to restore $1.1 billion in funding cuts that had been earmarked for K12-high school students needing help with effects of COVID.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan recently, and addresses the March 28 Dept. of Education announcement that the agency would not continue to give states access to the COVID relief funds, enacted by former president Joe Biden. The COVID relief law promised to keep COVID funding available until March 2026.
The national plaintiffs include all Democratic attorney generals, such as New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
The plaintiffs allege that the White House administration's reversal was illegal, because it did not follow specific procedures, under by federal law, to make the cuts. The AGs are asking for a court order to block the new COVID relief law. The lawsuit calls for the court to restore the revoked grants to the schools, and order the federal government enforces legal procedures when making any funding decisions.
In court documents, attorneys argue that the new reversal of the COVID relief law has created budget deficits in many states across the country. Some of the funding, as legal documents note, included projects including tutoring students, with millions needed such help due to falling behind during the pandemic; providing students who are homeless and food insecure meals, and infrastructure improvements to school buildings.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the students are in most need are being devastated by the new cuts.
"The Trump administration's latest attack on our schools will hurt our most vulnerable students and make it harder for them to thrive," said Attorney General James, who helped lead the lawsuit. "Cutting school systems' access to vital resources that our students and teachers rely on is outrageous and illegal."
The AG coalition argue in legal documents that the National Institute of Health’s (NIH’s) grant terminations violate federal law that include the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires the administration of offer factual reasons why their widespread Department of Education terminations are justified. The court documents allege the new cuts are illegal, in part, because the directives for the NIH are congressionally mandated, and are not under the powers of the president.
The coalition, in court documents, claim the Trump administration is violating federal law specifically by delaying approvals, reviews, and the funds pending after being awarded grants.
The Trump administration, in public statements by President Trump, promises to dismantle the Department of Education. Currently, the Department of Education cut 1,315 positions, almost half its staff. The remaining Department of Education staff stands at 2,183 nationwide.
Included in the cuts to the agency, 240 staff, out of 568, working for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have been removed, meaning that numerous lawyers who investigated civil rights violations on behalf of students are gone. The OCR’s mission was for Civil Rights (OCR) and the attorneys who work there were tasked with "preventing, identifying, ending, and remedying discrimination against America's students" being targeted due to race, national origin, sex, age and disability.
Prior to this lawsuit, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from cutting $11 million in COVID-era public health grants.
