Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Tuesday that she has joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in the United States that are suing the Trump Administration.

The lawsuit attempts to invoke a single provision buried in the federal regulations to strip away billions of dollars in critical federal funding for states and other grantees.

The lawsuit also seeks to limit the administration’s use of this regulation to indiscriminately and illegally terminate critical funding for combating violent crime, educating students, protecting clean drinking water, conducting life-saving medical and scientific research, safeguarding public health, and addressing food insecurity.

Since Jan. 20, at the direction of President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), federal agencies have stripped away thousands of grants they had previously awarded to states and other grantees, Nessel’s office said in a press release. The press release goes on to say that the Trump administration has slashed critical federal funding largely by invoking a single clause in the federal regulations of the Office of Management and Budget, which provides that agencies may terminate an award of federal funding if it “no longer effectuates … agency priorities.”

Those five words have formed the basis for much of the administration’s indiscriminate campaign to terminate funding expressly authorized by Congress and awarded to states, including several grants to Michigan.

“Whether or not Donald Trump and his administration believe it, our democracy is built on the separation of powers and the rule of law,” Nessel said. “That’s why my Democratic colleagues and I have been successful in securing 10 injunctions so far against the White House’s unlawful federal actions. I will continue to fight tooth and nail against such harmful and unconstitutional policies.”

Before the administration, federal agencies had not terminated grants on a whim merely because the agency’s priorities shifted midway during the use of the grant. That was not how they applied the regulation, either, Nessel’s office said in the press release.

The coalition is filing suit in the District of Massachusetts and Nessel joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in filing this lawsuit.