WASHINGTON- Public health experts warned Tuesday that $600 million in cuts to federal public health funding announced by the Trump administration would jeopardize one of California's main early warning systems for HIV outbreaks, leaving communities vulnerable to undetected spread of disease.
The grant cancellations affect funding for a number of disease control programs in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, but the vast majority is headed to California, according to congressional Democrats who received the full list of affected programs on Monday. The move is the latest in the White House's campaign against what it called “radical gender ideology” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These cuts will harm vital efforts to prevent the spread of disease,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). “It's dangerous and deliberate.”
Under the direction of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC has increasingly moved away from evidence-backed HIV prevention and monitoring programs, claiming that they “undermine core American values.”
The shutdown will derail $1.1 million planned for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Project, according to the president's budget office.
The program is a “critical” tool used to detect emerging HIV trends, prevent outbreaks before they spread and reduce HIV incidence, said Dr. Paul Simon, an epidemiologist at the UCLA Fielding School and former scientific director of the county public health department.
“Without this program, we are flying blind. The first step in addressing any public health threat is understanding what is happening on the ground,” Simon said. “With HIV in particular, people often have no symptoms for years and can transmit the virus without knowing it.”
The White House gave little explanation for the move, but stated that the programs it targeted “promote DEI and radical gender ideology.”
Simon rejected the claim, calling the move “dangerous” and “short-sighted.”
“It's particularly dangerous to bury your head in the sand and pretend there's no problem,” Simon said. “The success we have had in recent decades is due to early detection of cases… By treating people early, we can prevent transmission.”
Several frontline local service providers were targeted for cuts, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which will lose $383,000 in investments for community-based HIV prevention programs.
The LGBT Center has not received official notification of the elimination, but said the cuts would disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ communities and other underserved populations.
“These decisions are not guided by public health evidence, but by politics, and the consequences are real,” LGBT Center executive director Joe Hollendoner said in a statement. “Any reduction in funding directly impacts our ability to provide care, prevention and life-saving services to the people who depend on us.”
The cuts announced by the Trump administration are likely to face challenges from states and grant recipients.
The LGBT Center last year succeeded in blocking similar grant cancellations stemming from the president's executive orders. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction that the administration could not use executive orders to “weaponize funds appropriated by Congress” to avoid legal funding obligations.
“We are willing to pursue further litigation against this administration if necessary to protect our community,” Hollendoner said.
For the record:
3:44 pm February 10, 2026Comments by Joe Hollendoner, executive director of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, were incorrectly attributed to center spokesperson Brian De Los Santos in an earlier version of this article.
The White House has repeatedly pushed to stop the flow of billions of dollars to California and other Democratic-led states, a strategy that has heightened partisan tensions and expanded the scope of California's legal fight against the administration.
In January, administration officials said they would freeze $10 billion in federal funding for child care, welfare and social services for California and four other states, but a federal judge blocked the effort.
Trump later said he would begin blocking federal funds for “sanctuary” jurisdictions like California and Los Angeles, which have long opposed cooperation with federal immigration agencies.
Last year, the administration made sweeping cuts to federal funding for minority-serving institutions, leaving California colleges scrambling to figure out how to replace or do without the money. Federal officials argued that such programs were racially discriminatory.
In June, California congressional Democrats demanded the release of $19.8 million in frozen grants for HIV prevention to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. That freeze forced the county to terminate contracts with 39 community health providers and nearly shut down HIV testing and other services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
the administration reverse course after sustained pressure from Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Burbank) and 22 fellow House Democrats.
“These grants save lives,” Friedman said of the recent layoffs. “They connect the homeless to care, support front-line organizations fighting HIV, and build the public health infrastructure that protects my constituents. Just as I did the last time the Trump Administration attacked our communities, I will not stop fighting back.”
In a letter to Kennedy last year, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said the Cabinet secretary has a history of peddling misinformation about the virus and the disease.
Kennedy's motivations “are not based on sound science, but rather on misinformation and disinformation that you have previously spread about HIV and AIDS, including your repeated claim that HIV does not cause AIDS,” Garcia wrote.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called President Trump's latest threats to public health funding “a familiar pattern” and cast doubt on its long-term legal viability.
“The president publicly states that he will strip public health funding from states that voted against him, without offering details or formal notice,” Newsom said. “If the Trump administration takes action, we will respond appropriately. Until then, we will stop participating in their attempt to grab headlines.”
