{"id":477022,"date":"2026-02-19T03:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477022\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:04:07","slug":"mdh-fighting-to-keep-millions-in-public-health-funding-after-cdc-pulls-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477022\/","title":{"rendered":"MDH fighting to keep millions in public health funding after CDC pulls grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is fighting to keep millions in\u00a0federal public\u2011health funding<\/a>\u00a0after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moved to pull the state\u2019s\u00a0Public Health Infrastructure Grant<\/a>\u00a0(PHIG). <\/p>\n

The five\u2011year grant runs from Dec. 1, 2022 through Nov. 30, 2027.<\/p>\n

CDC first called the award \u201cterminated,\u201d then later described it as \u201ctemporarily paused.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to Minnesota, the CDC said, \u201cnotice of termination, effective February 11, 2026.\u201d The letter said the CDC may terminate a federal award, \u201cto the extent authorized by law, if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency\u00a0priorities<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency said those priorities center on strengthening the public\u2011health workforce, labs, data systems and the detection of health threats.<\/p>\n

MDH Commissioner Brooke Cunningham said the department is in compliance with the priorities. She said the decision came without any explanation of what Minnesota allegedly failed to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying we are not in accordance or in line with federal administration priorities. That is a bit perplexing, given that our work plans were approved. We had already been allocated these funds,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

When asked whether CDC identified anything specific, she added, \u201cOh no. They did not do that. They just said, \u2018These are not aligned with our priorities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency did not answer our questions about what MDH was allegedly not prioritizing.<\/p>\n

MDH said the state risks losing about $38 million in PHIG funding. \u201cThis is causing a lot of chaos and uncertainty,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

Advocates warn the loss of funding could hit people with health challenges hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anytime resources are taken away from communities and who are already struggling to have their needs met, that can be very scary for people,\u201d said Jenna Carter, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

She said more than 55,000 Minnesotans live with epilepsy and that modern data systems are essential for understanding barriers to care and guiding decisions at every level of government.<\/p>\n

Carter said many families already struggle to access transportation, healthy food and consistent care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen public health infrastructure is weakened, those who face health care challenges, particularly those who live with chronic conditions like epilepsy, you know, really can be left without the critical care and support that they need to live their best lives possible,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

The federal directive is targeting four states: Minnesota, California, Colorado and Illinois. In total, more than $600 million in CDC grants are at risk.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Keith Ellison has now joined those states in\u00a0suing the Trump administration<\/a>, calling the cuts unlawful and warning they would force Minnesota to lay off public\u2011health workers and scale back disease\u2011tracking and emergency\u2011preparedness programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cuts only serve to continue Donald Trump\u2019s campaign of revenge and retribution against the people of Minnesota,\u201d Ellison said in announcing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

A temporary restraining order is currently allowing Minnesota to keep using the money for 14 days while the lawsuit moves forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Judge grants TRO blocking federal government from cutting public health funding to the state<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will defend our work. We will defend our work for Minnesota,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, asking for clarification.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said, \u201cThe Public Health Infrastructure Grants were temporarily paused so HHS could implement a new review process, one that will ensure funds are used for their intended purposes and in alignment with agency priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below is the letter sent to MDH from CDC:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0CDC<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Funding<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Kamaria Braye<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0MDH<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Minnesota Department of Health<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is fighting to keep millions in\u00a0federal public\u2011health funding\u00a0after the Centers for Disease…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[13897,159,97,252,253,90116,69352,217283],"class_list":{"0":"post-477022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-cdc","9":"tag-funding","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-kamaria-braye","14":"tag-mdh","15":"tag-minnesota-department-of-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}