Alabama’s attorney general has not signed on to a lawsuit filed Monday by his counterparts in 22 states suing the Trump administration and the National Institutes of Health over the 15% cuts to indirect grant costs, which threaten the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other state institutions.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts by 22 state attorneys general — all of them Democrats — and led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Illinois and Michigan.

A spokeswoman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, could not immediately be reached on whether Massachusetts AG Kim Campbell asked him to join the lawsuit or whether Marshall plans to sign on as a plaintiff.

Campbell’s office could not be immediately reached on whether it reached out to Marshall.

Marshall did, however, sign onto a 22 state coalition brief with Republican state attorney generals to support Trump’s federal employee buyout program.

Sen. Katie Britt has said she will work with Trump’s health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville supports the cuts.

“When the American people voted for President Trump on Nov. 5th, they voted for his campaign promise to create the Department of Government Efficiency and cut waste in the federal government,” Tuberville said. “I am 100% supportive of DOGE and Elon Musk.”

The plaintiffs argue the cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which bans the NIH rom requiring categorial and indiscriminate changes to indirect cost reimbursements.

“We will not allow the Trump Administration to unlawfully undermine our economy, hamstring our competitiveness, or play politics with our public health,” Campbell said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a court order preventing the Trump administration from implementing the cuts.

UAB, the University of Alabama at Huntsville and other research institutions in Alabama are deeply impacted by the slash to indirect grant costs, which affects the ability to conduct medical research.

In 2024, the University of Alabama at Birmingham was in the top 1% of all NIH-funded institutions, including private, public and international organizations. And all six of UAB’s health-related schools were in the top 15 public universities in NIH funding in Fiscal Year 2022.

According to United for Health, NIH grants in Alabama in 2023 alone supported 4,769 jobs for an economic impact of $909 million and went to institutions from Mobile to Huntsville and in between. They impact almost 13,000 jobs at more than 1,200 businesses, including HudsonAlpha in Huntsville.

NIH funds go toward clinical trials, data analytics, community engagement, research workforce and programs in dermatology, urology, pediatrics, gynecology, optometry, dentistry and public health.