CHICAGO – Gov. Pritzker released the following statement on the suit filed by 22 state attorneys general to prevent unlawful and damaging cuts to federal funding:
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“I am proud that Illinois and Attorney General Kwame Raoul are leading 22 other states in a suit to hold the Trump Administration accountable for undermining the rule of law.
"I am grateful that the courts have already issued a temporary restraining order in response to the suit, recognizing the extraordinary harm to universities and research centers from this unprecedented action.
"The cuts to the Department of Human Services and the National Institute of Health are catastrophic for people and programs that provide lifesaving medical and scientific research. The effects of cruel policies like these are immediate and grave. Already, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has announced it will have to shutter its Soybean Innovation Lab and lay off full-time employees as a direct result of these cuts.
"Investing in America’s research means investing in America’s leadership at home and abroad. Abroad, programs like the Soybean Innovation Lab help strengthen food economies and stabilize migration. At home, Illinois gets more than $1 billion a year, a fraction of the overall federal budget, to support 14,000 related jobs. Every one dollar of NIH funding generates more than $2 billion in economic activity—an investment with a return worth making. These actions would cost Illinois public institutions more than $70 million, jeopardizing support for facilities, staff, and students. NIH funding supports cutting-edge research that is intended to make people in the United States and abroad healthier and safer. Removing the ability of public institutions to carry out this work would diminish both our national competitiveness in scientific discovery and our ability to cultivate the next generation of scientists.
"Hundreds, if not thousands of programs, would be devastated by these cuts and see ripple effects that stretch globally. These actions will put U.S. citizens directly at risk and also violate federal law. This lawsuit is an important and necessary to stop Trump’s increasingly authoritarian executive orders, and I support Attorney General Raoul and his co-plaintiffs in this suit.”
