(The Center Square) – Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and 23 other attorneys general or governors filed a lawsuit this week against the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for eliminating $11.4 billion in public health grants for states.
Last week, the HHS canceled these grants due to the COVID-19 pandemic being over, Reuters reported.
The attorneys general say the grant terminations came without a warning or a legally valid explanation.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. All of the plaintiffs are Democrats.
In the lawsuit, the attorneys general and governors said the now-eliminated funding supported various public health needs, including infectious diseases, immunizations, emergency preparedness, mental health and substance abuse services, and public health infrastructure.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs argued these cuts violated the Administrative Procedure Act. This act “governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The lawsuit says that the HHS withholding these funds has and will cause “devastating harm” to the plaintiffs’ states.
The attorneys general and governors are asking for a temporary restraining order against these cuts to overrule Kennedy’s and HHS’ mass grant terminations. The restraining order would only apply to the states that are suing.
“I cannot overstate how reckless and illegal these cuts are,” Mayes said in a statement. “By slashing these grants, the Trump administration has launched an all-out attack on Arizona’s public health system — harming the entire state, but hitting rural communities the hardest.”
She added that these cuts focus on places that need critical funding.
Eliminating these funds “would devastate” Arizona’s healthcare system and cause job loss, Mayes said.
Arizona will lose over $239 million as a state due to these HHS cancellations, according to the attorney general.
The state health programs that will dissolve due to the loss of funding include job loss for healthcare providers in county public health offices and tribal grant partner employees. Also, grants for nonprofits, rural county health departments and telehealth organization services will be cut, Mayes said.
She added that money going toward the state’s vaccination efforts will be gone.
“With this single threat, Secretary Kennedy has all but ensured that more Arizonans will get sick and die the next time we suffer an infectious disease outbreak, or God forbid, another pandemic,” Mayes said.
She noted the cuts come at a time when measles and bird flu are on the rise across the U.S.
Bird flu has been found in dairy herds and zoo animals in Arizona, but no humans have had a case in the state.
Arizona doesn’t have a reported case of measles.
The Center Square contacted HHS about the lawsuit, but its deputy press secretary, Emily Hilliard, said the federal department doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
In addition to Arizona, the states filing the lawsuit are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Washington.
