Society of General Internal Medicine v. Kennedy

In 1999, Congress established the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) as a centralized hub within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support innovative, high-value research into how our health system works, how to support patients and providers in choosing the right care, and how to improve health through care delivery. AHRQ is required by statute to run a robust program of grants for healthcare researchers, including primary care researchers working to improve the care patients receive every day.

Under the Trump administration, HHS and AHRQ stopped all grantmaking at the agency. Since a mass reduction in force of AHRQ staffers was announced in early April 2025, AHRQ has not issued a single new grant award, and it has stopped reviewing grant applications entirely. In late July, remaining AHRQ staff conceded that the agency was unable to issue any grant awards or obligate any of the tens of millions of dollars Congress appropriated for grants before they expire on September 30, 2025.

Representing the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)—two nonprofit associations representing healthcare researchers—we filed suit against HHS and AHRQ to challenge the unlawful halt of AHRQ’s grantmaking program, which is resulting in an illegal impoundment of funds appropriated by Congress to support vital research. At a hearing on our motion for a preliminary injunction to require the agency to restart AHRQ grantmaking and to obligate the funds for the purpose Congress intended is pending, the agency agreed to extend the deadline for obligating funds due to expire on September 30. We then filed a motion a motion to extend the deadline to December 31 and, after the court granted that motion, withdrew our motion for a preliminary injunction.