(The Center Square) – Saying the federal Health and Human Services agency is failing to pay out North Carolina’s $230 million from a nationwide $11 billion as appropriated by Congress, the state’s Democratic attorney general joined a lawsuit with 23 other plaintiffs on Tuesday.
The action against HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., named a defendant in his role overseeing the department within the Trump administration, came the same morning as subcommittees in the U.S. House of Representatives heard testimony related to what a state congresswoman called “judicial warfare in the flesh.”
Philip Weiser and Peter Neronha, respective attorneys general of Colorado and Rhode Island, led the filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
“The federal government can’t just cancel nearly a quarter billion dollars that have already been congressionally allocated to our state,” Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a release. “It’s unlawful – and dangerous. That money supports rural hospitals, health care workers, emergency services, and public health programs that protect seniors and families across North Carolina.
“Immediately halting critical health care programs across the state without legal authority isn’t just wrong – it puts lives at risk. That’s why we’re going to court.”
President Donald Trump won 78 of 100 counties on Nov. 5, with the losses in all three major urban centers and several other larger metropolitan areas. Jackson said 77 of 86 health departments, most in rural counties, would feel the impact in their ability to deliver health care. He said that includes resources for the mountain region recovering from Hurricane Helene and in battle with Carolinas wildfires.
The Emergency Medical Services of more populous counties – Davie, Durham, Gaston, Surry, Orange and Cumberland – would also take a hit, Jackson said. Collegiate substance misuse recovery programs would be harmed, Jackson said, at Appalachian State, Elizabeth City State, East Carolina, Fayetteville State, North Carolina A&T, N.C. State, North Carolina Central, UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington and Winston-Salem State.
Relief is sought to set aside and declare unlawful public health terminations; award reasonable fees, costs and expenses including litigation fees of counsel; and grant other relief as the court finds necessary.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said Monday “As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority. This is judicial warfare in the flesh.”
Her comments came less than 36 hours before a hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, was to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judicial Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
