The coalition of democratically led states filed a lawsuit against Trump’s administration and tried to question its decision to cancel $ 11 billion on federal grants that were assigned to states during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit filed on Tuesday (April 1) at the Federal Court of Iceland claims that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) lasted the power to unilaterally cancel the funds after states have already used them to build critical health programs.
The General Prosecutors and Governors of 23 States and District of Columbia are part of legal proceedings and claim that grants were vital for maintaining public health initiatives related to control of infectious diseases, mental health and treatment.
“These funds were necessary in the fight against diseases such as measles and bird flu, and were used for mental health services and dependence renewal programs,” said Rhode Island General, Peter Neronha, one of the plaintiffs.
Background cuts of financing
The funds concerned were primarily assigned through the Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases (CDC) and Administration of Abuse of addictive substances and mental health (Samhsa) for the readiness of pandemic, prevention, treatment of addiction and suicide. States claim that the reduction of these resources now, after already used, would disrupt the major initiatives in the field of public health that were built to finance.
Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leads HHS, supervised the reduction of funding. In its statement, the Ministry justified this decision by the fact that the funds were originally used for testing COVID-19, vaccination and other pandemic reactions. “Pandemie Covid-19 is over and HHS will no longer waste billions of dollars of taxpayers to respond to the non-existent pandemic that the Americans moved years ago,” the Ministry said last week.
Restructuring within the medical department
The abolition of grants comes in the middle of a wider restructuring within the Ministry of Health and Human Services. In addition to reducing financing, the Ministry also launched a 10,000 layout round. Federal healthcare officials announced these cuts in staff on Tuesday as part of the administration effort to streamline operations and reduce expenses.
(Tagstotranslate) Lawsuit Against Trump Administration (T) $ 11 Billion Federal Grants Cut (T) Covid-19 Pandemic (T) US Department of Health and Human Services (T) Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Administration (Samhsa) (T) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (T) Public Health Initiatives (T) 10 (T) 000 Layoffs in HHS
