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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today addressed recent legal actions taken by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to protect federal funding and the integrity of the federal payment system. In recent weeks, the office has undertaken a variety of legal challenges and multistate partnerships aimed at safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of Maryland residents in response to the harmful actions of the Trump administration.
“The chaos and uncertainty of the first three weeks of the Trump Administration has threatened the jobs of tens of thousands of Maryland federal employees, struck fear into the hearts of the members of our most vulnerable and marginalized communities, threatened our economic strength and now, placed at risk federal resources that Marylanders rely on every single day to pay for food, health care, and housing costs,” said Attorney General Brown. “Our Office is doing everything we can to protect all Marylanders and will defend against future unlawful federal actions.”
On January 28, 2025, Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 22 states in filing a lawsuit that challenged President Donald Trump’s Office of Management & Budget’s (OBM) memo freezing federal grants and loans. The order would have resulted in the withholding of funding that every state in the country relies on to provide essential services to millions of Americans and put an indefinite pause on the majority of federal assistance to states. The policy would have immediately jeopardized state programs that provide critical health and childcare services to families in need, deliver support to public schools, combat hate crimes and violence against women, provide lifesaving disaster relief to states, and more. Because of this lawsuit, on January 31, 2025, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the Trump administration from imposing a blanket freeze on federal funding. The States continue to pursue further relief, filing their motion for preliminary injunction last Friday, February 7, 2025.
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury granted Elon Musk access to Americans’ personal private information, state bank account data, and other information that is some of our country’s most sensitive data. In response, Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general to file a lawsuit that challenges Musk's and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) staffers’ access to the Treasury Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS). With this lawsuit, the coalition is seeking an injunction preventing the Trump administration from continuing its new policy of expanded access to the BFS’ payment system, as well as a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful and unconstitutional.
Attorney General Brown also joined a coalition of 15 attorneys general to state their commitment to protecting access to gender-affirming care in the face of the Trump administration’s recent Executive Order that froze funding of these medical procedures. Attorney General Brown announced that Maryland will continue to enforce state laws that provide access to gender-affirming care and will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump administration to restrict access to care in Maryland.
On February 7, 2025, the Trump administration announced a $4 billion cut to National Institutes of Health (NIH). These funding cuts are expected to severely impact medical research and disrupt university budgets. Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to unilaterally cut “indirect cost” reimbursements at every research institution throughout the country. Most NIH-funded research occurs outside of federal government institutions, such as at both public and private universities and colleges. In Maryland, this includes over $300 million combined in direct NIH funding to the University of Maryland Baltimore and the University of Maryland College Park. NIH’s proposed reduction of UMB’s Indirect Cost Rate would eliminate $49.5 million annually in NIH indirect and passthrough funding that UMB uses to support its research programs.
The
Office of the Attorney General will continue to use the legal tools at
its disposal to challenge unlawful federal actions to protect critical
federal funding that communities depend on, secure sensitive financial
data from unauthorized access, and ensure access to essential medical
care for Marylanders.
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