Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has joined a bipartisan coalition of states in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Junior for abruptly and illegally terminating nearly $12-billion in critical public health grants to the states. The coalition is seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate the terminations in the suing states – saying the actions violate the la. Jennings says Delaware stands to lose over $38-million from the cancellations which could result in state public health programs and initiatives being dissolved or disbanded – including community health workers and mental health services.
Additional information from AG Jennings:
The grant terminations, which came with no warning or legally valid explanation, have quickly caused chaos for public health agencies that continue to rely on these critical funds for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as infectious disease management, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing public health infrastructure.
“With measles and bird flu on the rise, we need to reinforce public health, not undermine it,” said AG Jennings. “Rural communities will be among the first to suffer, but make no mistake — nobody is immune from the impact of these cuts. We’re going to continue to fight this Administration’s unconstitutional efforts to bypass Congress.”
Congress authorized and appropriated new and increased funding for these grants in COVID-19-related legislation to support critical public health needs. Many of these grants are from specific programs created by Congress, such as block grants to states for mental health and substance abuse and addiction services. Yet, with no legal authority or explanation, Secretary Kennedy’s HHS agencies on March 24 arbitrarily terminated these grants “for cause” effective immediately claiming that the pandemic is over and the grants are no longer necessary.
In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, Jennings and the coalition of attorneys general assert that the mass terminations violate federal law because the end of the pandemic is not a “for cause” basis for ending the grants, especially since none of the appropriated funds are tied to the end of the pandemic which occurred more than a year ago. HHS’ position, up until a few days ago, was that the end of the pandemic did not affect the availability of these grant funds. Moreover, for some of the grants, termination “for cause” is not a permissible basis for termination, yet the federal government did so anyway.
Jennings and the coalition are seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate Secretary Kennedy’s and HHS’ mass grant terminations in the suing states, arguing that the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The states are also asking the court to prevent HHS from maintaining or reinstating the terminations and any agency actions implementing them.
In addition to Delaware, the other states participating in the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
