The Bay State has joined a coalition of 23 states and D.C. in suing the Trump Administration — again — with the latest court action aimed toward blocking the sudden termination of $11 billion in Department of Health and Human Services grants.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office said the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island and comes in answer to the abrupt and illegal termination of awarded grant funds, including seven grants secured by Massachusetts totaling $118 million.
Now is not the time, Campbell said, to disrupt public health.
“In a time when emerging public health threats like measles and bird flu are on the rise, the Trump Administration has unlawfully cut funding meant to address these issues, showing us once again that they do not care about the health and safety of our residents or country,” Campbell said in a statement.
The lawsuit alleges that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump Administration are sidestepping Congress in pursuit of promised cuts to the federal bureaucracy, and that their actions have already interrupted the “essential support” provided by programs funded thought HHS grants.
The suit indicates cuts to HHS grants first began on the evening of March 24, and that loss of the grant funding has already caused “chaos for State and local health jurisdictions.” If the funding is not restored, the AGs told the court, “key public health programs and initiatives” in the plaintiff states will have to be “dissolved or disbanded.”
In terminating the suits, the AGs told the court, the HHS Secretary failed to establish, as required by law, “any material failure to comply with agreements or other required conditions” of the grant programs.
The plaintiffs states tell the court that the termination notices came with a declaration that the funds were no longer needed, as they had been allocated to help combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AGs contend that Congress did not limit the cancelled grant funding for use during the pandemic, but that lawmakers “made wide-ranging public health investments extending beyond” the declared emergency.
According to the AGs, the funding in question is not for pandemic response, but is used “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.”
The suit asks the court to “vacate and set aside” the grant terminations, issue “judicial declaration” that cutting the funds is unlawful, and to “preliminarily and permanently” block the administration from cutting the funds under a different order.
Joining the suit are the Attorneys General of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Named as defendants are Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“When this Administration takes illegal action that puts Massachusetts residents at risk, my office and I will continue showing up in court to protect them,” Campbell said.
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