


Gov. Maura Healey lashed out at President Donald Trump Wednesday over his administration’s attempt to cancel more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related grants across the country, of which Massachusetts was expected to receive $100 million over the next year.
Federal health officials announced Tuesday that they planned to recover $11.4 billion in grants for state and local public health departments and other health organizations across the country.
Healey said the decision to terminate the grants was “another example of President Trump and Elon Musk undermining the health and wellbeing of the people of Massachusetts and people across this nation.”
“Massachusetts depends on this funding to provide behavioral health care, prevent and treat respiratory illnesses, and ensure that community-based organizations, including community health centers and workers, have the resources they need to care for patients,” Healey said in a statement.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they expect to start taking back money 30 days after termination notices arrive at health organizations, some of which were sent out Monday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
The Healey administration said the Massachusetts Department of Public Health received a notice about the “sudden termination of multiple federal public health infrastructure grants.”
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration also “abruptly terminated” awards to the Department of Mental Health, according to the Healey administration.
Healey said the grants to Massachusetts were expected to shuttle $100 million to the state over the next year, and “much of the funding” had already been committed. The Trump administration, according to Healey, is attempting to cancel the unobligated portions of the grants.
A spokesperson for Healey did not say the exact amount that Massachusetts is at risk of losing because of the effort to recover the grant dollars.
“We are assessing the impacts,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The money is used to support “core functions” at the State Public Health Laboratory, including treatment and testing for respiratory diseases like bird flu.
Dollars also help prop up Massachusetts’ vaccine infrastructure and help community organizations improve vaccine uptake and “counter against vaccine mis- and disinformation,” officials in the Healey administration said.
Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh said the loss of money is a “deeply concerning blow to public health infrastructure across our country.”
“Strong public health infrastructure helps states prevent, monitor and manage outbreaks and divert resources where they’re needed to keep us safe from a wide range of diseases, including the ongoing bird flu outbreak,” she said in a statement.
The potential loss of public health funding is just the latest in a series of hits to the flow of federal funding to Massachusetts.
Healey blasted Trump Tuesday for allegedly delaying the release of more than $50 million in “critical funds” for lead pipe replacement in the Bay State. That came after Trump cut more than $12 million for school food and threatened millions of dollars for Boston Children’s Hospital.
Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.