New York state Attorney General Letitia James announced the filing of a new lawsuit along with 19 other states Monday, an effort to block further cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House released a budget proposal Friday, which includes $163 billion in cuts, with some of the steepest rollbacks planned for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Locally, HHS supports initiatives from Head Start to Meals on Wheels and public health research on rare infectious diseases.

Sweeping layoffs were already underway at HHS even before this new budget proposal.

“These actions are dangerous, cruel and illegal,” James said during a press conference Monday afternoon. “This is not how government is supposed to work.”

“We’ll continue to show up and stand up and speak up on behalf of the American people,” house Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies said.

And in the race for mayor, Trump’s budget proposal has now given Democratic challengers a common opponent.

In a press conference Monday morning, City Hall hopeful Brad Lander shared his plan to protect New York City consumers from price gouging and predatory lending following Trump’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In an exclusive interview with NY1, Democratic frontrunner Andrew Cuomo said as mayor, he would organize resistance to Trump budget cuts.

“We have to fight him on every battle, on every one of these programs. We have to try and stop him in the U.S. Congress, which I believe we have a good chance of doing. We have to build a political coalition nationwide,” Cuomo said.