Last week, the American Public Health Association joined five others in accusing Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency of violating transparency rules. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., just before Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE as a unit within the executive branch rather than an outside group — making it more likely to be subject to public records laws.

However, in the telling of conservative watchdogs, APHA, a membership and advocacy group for public health professionals, appears to have a conflict of interest that could serve as a motivator for targeting DOGE. At the tail end of the Biden administration, federal officials approved it for almost $7 million in taxpayer-backed grants related to DEI programs.

The funding to the APHA, awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, does not appear to have been disbursed yet. However, the Department of Health and Human Services has paused all new grant announcements, and Trump signed an executive order rescinding former President Joe Biden’s DEI actions in a sweeping manner.

“This fight against DOGE illustrates exactly why taxpayers need it so urgently,” said John Hart, CEO of Open the Books, a watchdog group expected to work with the Trump administration on sharing federal spending data for DOGE.

“In a classic case of self-dealing, one of the groups suing DOGE itself has received federal funds to advance its ideological agenda,” said Hart, a former GOP Senate aide. “Taxpayers need to knock groups like this off their ‘conflict of interest’ high horse and make it clear that they are not entitled to receive taxpayer funds.”

APHA pushed back on the notion that concerns about federal funding prompted its lawsuit over DOGE. It also pointed to lawsuits it filed under the Biden administration, including in connection to air pollution standards.

“They are unrelated,” Georges C. Benjamin, APHA’s executive director, told the Washington Examiner. “Our issue with DOGE is about transparency. It’s all about transparency.”

Nonetheless, the legal drama is a window into what will likely be a lawsuit-heavy four years when it comes to DOGE and the Trump administration’s unique cost-cutting efforts.

Trump renamed the U.S. Digital Service to the “U.S. DOGE Service” and also created a temporary DOGE group that expires in 2026. Moreover, “DOGE teams” will be assigned to federal agencies, raising questions about what guardrails will be in place for information access and special government employees.

DOGE, which was established to cut spending programs that Republicans determine to be left-leaning and wasteful, counts its leader as Elon Musk. Over the last several weeks, Musk and a team of aides have worked out of the Washington office for his company, SpaceX, as DOGE looks to hire “world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse,” according to its website. DOGE is expected to work closely with the White House’s budget office.

HHS, the agency overseeing the federal funding to APHA, did not respond to a request for comment. The CDC declined to comment.

Federal spending records list a $4.2 million grant from HHS to APHA for a “health equity” initiative.

“The proposed project will develop a comprehensive training program with technical assistance support to help nonprofit organizations build their capacity related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and facilitate efforts to infuse health equity concepts into their public health prevention efforts,” federal records say.

Similarly, a $2.7 million grant to APHA from HHS described a program to support “practices that center diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in developing and maintaining cross-sectoral and community-based partnerships” to “advance health equity.” Both grants list the CDC as the subagency funder.

APHA has a “committee on health equity” and has argued that racism is a systemic problem in the United States, according to organizational documents.

Based in Washington, APHA has urged employers on its website to implement a “DEI strategy” that it said will improve workplace return on investment. To Republicans, corporate DEI policies are discriminatory because they focus on biological factors instead of merit.

“The DEI grift is what is known as a self-licking ice cream cone,” said Tom Jones, president of the conservative American Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit group.

“DEI programs serve no other practical purpose than to perpetuate DEI programs and DEI practitioners,” Jones told the Washington Examiner. “It should come as no surprise that the APHA is suing DOGE when DOGE threatened to take away its ice cream cone.”