Hawaii joins states suing Trump over HHS public health cuts

WASHINGTON >> A coalition of 19 states, including Hawaii, and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration today in an effort to block its slashing of the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that the significant staff reductions and cuts to public health grants amounted to an “unconstitutional and illegal dismantling” of the agency.

The suit comes on the heels of several similar cases seeking to block the termination of billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal health agencies in support of public health research and state health programs.

Joining New York in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit’s scope is broad, taking aim at the larger public health agenda laid out by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. His priorities include reorienting the department around his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, conducting sweeping layoffs and changing vaccine-approval practices, a move that has alarmed and baffled many health experts.

The suit argues the cutbacks already enacted have jeopardized a range of congressionally mandated programs, including mental health and addiction services, Head Start (a federal program that funds early childhood education for poor students), Medicaid, and assistance for low-income households in paying heating and cooling bills, according to a draft of the suit reviewed by The New York Times.

The lawsuit follows the release of President Donald Trump’s budget outline last week, in which he sought to enlist Congress in his effort to reduce the department’s overall footprint and scope by slashing billions from its budget.

“This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the challenge filed today. “When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant people, and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe or children thrive, you are not making America healthy — you are putting countless lives at risk.”

The lawsuit chronicles a monthslong effort to chip away at the department’s functions, leading up to a policy memo released March 27, which “collapsed 28 agencies into 15” and shuttered half of its regional offices across the country.

Among other changes, the policy memo highlighted Kennedy’s goal of refocusing the department’s core scientific functions on “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”

“The earliest steps were to impose severe restrictions on all public-facing agency activity, fire the independent inspector general, rescind job offers, and institute a hiring freeze,” the states’ lawsuit said. “The next steps were to remove the existing key leaders within the agencies unsympathetic to Secretary Kennedy’s favored views, and fire tens of thousands of the rank and file. This coordinated dismantling has stopped crucial work that plaintiff states relied upon.”

Like a number of the other challenges filed, the lawsuit claims the Trump administration usurped Congress’ authority to set spending and fund programs it has authorized. The suit adds that the decision to lay off the staff of entire programs, and move the department away from its traditional role and rooting in medical science, was abrupt, arbitrary and in violation of the law.

The suit asks Judge Melissa R. DuBose, a federal judge in Rhode Island, to reject the entire reorganization of the department laid out in the March 27 memo as unconstitutional and to halt the layoffs of tens of thousands of employees, which it says will obviously harm state health programs.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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