In a decisive move against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, has joined forces with his counterparts from 23 other states to file a lawsuit challenging the abrupt termination of vital public health grants. Reported by the Washington State Attorney General's office yesterday, the lawsuit opposes the actions of HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., which resulted in the cessation of approximately $11 billion in critical funding for state health initiatives, a decision made without prior warning or a legally valid rationale.
The absence of these funds has sent shockwaves through state health agencies, which depend on this support for various urgent public health endeavors, including infection disease control, emergency preparedness, and addressing substance abuse and mental health issues. The unanticipated decrees have already had tangible consequences for Washington, slated to lose over $159 million, leading to the suspension of the Care-A-Van mobile health clinics, which had been delivering health care and education in underprivileged areas, "We can’t make America healthy by spreading preventable diseases," Brown remarked in a statement from the Washington State Attorney General's office.
These funds were part of congressional appropriations related to COVID-19 legislation, meant to bolster the country's public health response capacity. The terminations undermine not only the nation's readiness to contend with health threats, but also its ability to recover from the continued impacts of the pandemic, particularly on the most vulnerable populations with mental illnesses and substance use disorders.
This legal action claims that the terminations of the grants violate federal law, arguing that the end of the pandemic does not provide a valid reason to conclude the funding. Congress had not tied these grants to the pandemic's status, consistent with prior positions from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that ensured the funds would remain available regardless of the pandemic's duration. Despite this, Secretary Kennedy's HHS agencies ended the programs on Monday last week, stating that the conclusion of the pandemic made the grants unnecessary, according to information from the multi-state coalition's lawsuit published on the Washington Attorney General's website.
The coalition's lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island recuperates the actions of HHS and Secretary Kennedy as violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. The states are now seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the grant terminations and prevent any further attempt to withhold or rescind funding, a quest reinforced by the united front of attorneys general from states across the nation, including the leaders of this litigation from Colorado, Rhode Island, California, Minnesota, and Washington.
