Attorney General Kris joined a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for abruptly and illegally terminating nearly $12 billion in critical public health grants to the states.
The grant terminations, which came with no warning or legally valid explanation, have quickly caused chaos for state 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.
“I cannot overstate how reckless and illegal these cuts are,” said Attorney General Mayes. “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. These cuts target the very places that rely most on this critical funding. Eliminating it would devastate our already precarious system and cost jobs across Arizona, from doctors to tribal health workers. I will fight this every step of the way.”
Arizona stands to lose more than $239 million from these cancellations by HHS. If the funding is not restored, important state public health programs and initiatives will have to be dissolved or disbanded, including:
- Many healthcare providers’ jobs, particularly in our county public health offices, and ongoing health care provider training
- Employees at every tribal grant partner (Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, Gila River Health Care, White Mountain Apache Tribe, and the Cocopah Indian Tribe) and Northern Arizona University employees
- The critical effort to modernize our state’s outdated disease surveillance system, MEDSIS
- Grants for rural county health departments, non-profits, and other organizations that support providing telehealth services, utilizing Community Health Workers (CHWs) to conduct outreach and education, linking community members to available services, improving public health data collection, and supporting a centralized patient transfer system
- Infrastructure, support, training, technical assistance, and health service delivery for those suffering from behavioral health needs, particularly in rural communities
- Flu, measles, and other routine vaccination efforts in form of mobile vaccine clinics and other community vaccination efforts, reducing the availability and accessibility to vaccines, thereby potentially increasing the severity of disease outbreaks
“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,” said Attorney General Mayes.
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 their lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, 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 unlawfully terminated them.
With this lawsuit, Attorney General Mayes 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.
Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado, Attorney General Rob Bonta of California, Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Attorney General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island, and Attorney General Nick Brown of Washington are co-leading the litigation. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Oregon.
Original source can be found here.