The Trump administration is being sued by nearly half the U.S., with attorneys general in 23 states teaming up to file a lawsuit Tuesday over the president’s cancellation of $11 billion in “critical public health funding” that was doled out during the COVID-19 pandemic and kept in place by Congress.
“These termination notices … immediately triggered chaos for State and local health jurisdictions,” the group’s complaint alleges. “This funding provides essential support for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as identifying, tracking, and addressing infectious diseases; ensuring access to immunizations; fortifying emergency preparedness; providing mental health and substance abuse services; and modernizing critical public health infrastructure.”
Trump chose to do away with the federal funding late last month, with it being officially scrubbed away on March 24. If the grants are not restored, the attorneys general say, “key public health programs” and initiatives that address “ongoing and emerging public health needs” in the various states that are suing will have to be dissolved or disbanded in the coming weeks and months — with large numbers of state and local public health employees and contractors being shown the door.
The states are targeting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania are also suing.
“The result of these massive, unexpected funding terminations is serious harm to public health, leaving Plaintiff States at greater risk for future pandemics and the spread of otherwise preventable disease and cutting off vital public health services,” the states allege. “The Public Health Terminations exceed Defendants’ statutory and regulatory authority and are unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).”
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