Since the beginning of the year, the Universities of Wisconsin has been reviewing federal legislative actions, regulatory changes, and Presidential executive orders. Some of our work has been to coordinate outreach and action on those issues affecting our UW universities. Here’s an update to the work the Universities of Wisconsin has been doing specifically on federally funded projects and litigation. Go to our Federal Updates website for additional information.

Federally Funded Project Terminations, Delay, and Action

Since January 2025, the Trump Administration has issued several directives to federal agencies that resulted in the wrongful termination of approved, federally funded projects at Universities of Wisconsin that support our collective missions and the Wisconsin Idea. In addition, several federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, have delayed grant application reviews and attempted to drastically cut overhead payments for critical research.

The terminated projects include one-on-one interventions for 3-5-year-olds at risk and/or from low-income families in the areas of language, literacy, social interaction, and initiative skills; a study of the health and well-being of adolescents in an era of digital and social media; research on  preventing future coronavirus pandemics;  a teacher preparation program designed to address the critical shortage of qualified special education teachers serving students in Milwaukee Public Schools; and research requested by the Social Security Administration to inform evidence-based policymaking.

Meanwhile, reducing federal funding of health research could dramatically affect studies occurring right now at our universities on Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, cancer, diabetes, and other debilitating diseases.

These terminations and delays would have devastating impacts on our Universities and the broader community, harming our collective ability to pursue projects of importance to Americans; curtailing the possibility of making critical, life-saving discoveries; and limiting opportunities to train students to enter the workforce. Funding cuts and delays will lead to layoffs among staff and trainees and interrupt the progress of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students toward their degrees. They also damage Wisconsin’s and the nation’s innovation economy and international competitiveness.

The Office of General Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs at UW-Madison, and Office of Legal Affairs at UW-Milwaukee have worked closely with the Wisconsin Attorney General and the Governor’s Office to pursue legal challenges to some of these terminations and the dismantling of some federal agencies by preparing declarations that present factual evidence about the harm of recent actions taken by the federal government. UW–Madison has also provided declarations in cases brought by higher-education associations of which the university is a member.

Litigation Action on Federal Directives

To date, Wisconsin has joined the following multi-state lawsuits to fight unlawful impacts to the Universities of Wisconsin, and in some cases, submitted declarations in suits brought by partners in higher education. Some lawsuits have resulted in court orders that block the federal government from executing these directives until further legal judgement can be reached:

  • New York v. Trump (District of Rhode Island Case No. 25-cv-00039) – filed 1/28/25
    • Multi-state case challenging the OMB “funding freeze”
  • Mass. v. NIH (District of Massachusetts Case No. 25-cv-10338) – filed 2/10/25
    • Multi-state case challenging NIH’s proposal to reduce indirect cost rate to 15%
  • AAU v. NIH (District of Massachusetts Case No. 25-cv-10346) – filed 2/10/25
    • AAU case challenging NIH’s proposal to reduce indirect cost rate to 15%
  • California v. Dept. of Education (District of Massachusetts Case No. 25-cv-10548) – filed 3/6/25
    • Multi-state case challenging U.S. Dept. of Education termination of TQP and SEED grants
  • New York v. McMahon (District of Massachusetts Case No. 1:25-cv-10601) – filed 3/13/25
    • Multi-state case challenging the dismantling of the Department of Education
  • Colorado v. HHS (District of Rhode Island Case No. 25-cv-00121) – filed 4/1/25
    • Multi-state case challenging HHS terminations of COVID-19 related grants
  • Rhode Island v. Trump (District of Rhode Island Case No. 1:25-cv-00128) – filed 4/4/25
    • Multi-state case challenging the dismantling of Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS)
  • Mass. v. HHS (District of Massachusetts Case No. 25-cv-10814) – filed 4/4/25
    • Multi-state case challenging NIH grant terminations and NIH delays in the grant-awarding process
  • AAU v. Dept. of Energy (District of Massachusetts Case No. 1:25-cv-10912-ADB) – filed 4/14/25
    • AAU-led case challenging DOE’s 15% cap on indirect cost recovery
  • Maryland v. Corporation for National and Community Service, operating as AmeriCorps (District of Maryland Case No. 1:25-cv-01363) – filed 4/29/24
    • Multi-state case challenging the dismantling of AmeriCorps
  • New York v. Kennedy (District of Rhode Island Case No. 1:25-cv-00196) – filed 5/5/25
    • Multi-state case challenging the dismantling of HHS
  • AAU v. National Science Foundation (District of Massachusetts Case No. 1:25-cv-11231) – filed 5/5/25
    • Association-led case challenging NSF’s cap on indirect cost recovery