13 Feb AAHIVM Condemns Partisan Targeting of HIV and STI Prevention Programs, Calls for Immediate Restoration of Vital Public Health Grants
The American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM) condemns the Trump administration’s decision to cancel more than $600 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants supporting HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention, surveillance, and public health infrastructure in California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota.
“This politically-motivated and illegal action driven by one man’s political vendettas threatens to reverse decades of progress against HIV and STIs while undermining the health and safety of communities across the country,” said Bruce Packett, AAHIVM’s executive director. “The immediate, mid-cycle termination of these grants, made without warning or time to plan, will force states to absorb unbudgeted losses they cannot replace with their own resources. The result will be preventable human suffering, increased HIV and STI transmission, and the loss of critical disease surveillance capacity needed to protect all Americans.”
The administration claims these grants are “inconsistent with agency priorities,” yet the targeted programs directly advance the CDC’s stated priorities of strengthening the public health system and modernizing infrastructure. These resources are essential to disease surveillance, workforce development, HIV prevention services (including pre-exposure prophylaxis [PrEP] access), and STI programs, which are all critical tools in the fight against infectious diseases that do not respect state borders or political affiliations.
The timing and scope of these cuts reveal their true purpose: partisan retaliation against states designated as “disfavored jurisdictions.” This attack on evidence-based public health programs will have catastrophic consequences that extend far beyond the targeted geographies. Recent measles outbreaks across multiple states demonstrate how quickly infectious disease threats spread regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. HIV and STI prevention requires sustained, coordinated national effort, not politically-motivated disruption.
AAHIVM strongly supports the decision by the four state attorneys general to file suit to halt these grant cancellations, and we call on the Trump administration to take the following immediate actions:
- Restore the terminated grants. The $602 million in canceled HIV, STI, and public health infrastructure grants must be immediately restored to prevent deaths, injuries, and needless suffering from disease outbreaks that states will no longer be able to track or address.
- End the targeting of sanctuary jurisdictions. The administration must cease its retaliatory campaign against states based on immigration policy disagreements. Public health decisions must be guided by science and evidence, not partisan political agendas.
- Reverse the pattern of HIV program elimination. These grant cancellations follow the March 2025 termination of dozens of NIH HIV research grants and reported plans to eliminate the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention entirely. This coordinated dismantling of the nation’s HIV response infrastructure directly contradicts the administration’s own 2019 pledge to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.
- Respect the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional order. Congress must denounce this administration’s lawless violation of the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement for reasoned decision-making. These actions represent a fundamental violation of basic constitutional principles by weaponizing federal funding against states based on political disagreement.
“An attack on public health infrastructure in intentionally targeted states is as ruthlessly petty as it gets,” said Packett. “The idea that preventing infectious disease can be a bargaining chip for some imaginary backroom ‘deal’ shows that this administration has completely given up on being serious about protecting the public’s health.”
AAHIVM calls on the administration to immediately reverse this dangerous and unprecedented decision before irreversible harm is done to the public’s health.