Judge blocks White House from gutting Health & Human Services

(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday stopped the Trump administration from proceeding with widespread funding and staffing cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, a win for Democratic states that claim the reductions would have caused “potentially irreversible damage” to public health initiatives.

The department’s secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan in March to terminate 10,000 HHS employees and shutter dozens of its agencies, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to slash the size of the federal government.

As a result of that plan, “critical public health services have been interrupted, databases taken offline, status of grants thrown into chaos, technical assistance services gone, and training and consultation services curtailed,” U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose wrote in an order Tuesday.

The Joe Biden appointee granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of states that sued to curtail the harm Kennedy’s initiative could have had on their local health departments. The states filed the lawsuit in May in the District of Rhode Island.

DuBose found that the states credibly showed the plan could leave them ill-prepared to handle emerging public health crises, like bird flu and the measles.

Like many other judges who have ruled against Trump’s agenda to slash federal funding and headcounts, DuBose also expressed concern about the constitutionality of the executive branch making such cuts.

“To properly set the scene for this case, the court begins with a brief reminder about the bedrock doctrine of separation of powers that governs the relationship between the Unite[d] States’ three co-equal branches of government,” DuBose wrote in her 58-page ruling. “The founders carefully constructed this democratic system to prevent the concentration of power in one part of the government.”

DuBose ultimately found the administration “does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress.”

She enjoined the government from moving ahead with Kennedy’s announced plan or ordering any further reductions in force.

“HHS is the backbone of our nation’s public health and social safety net — from cancer screenings and maternal health to early childhood education and domestic violence prevention,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Today’s order guarantees these programs and services will remain accessible and halts the administration’s attempt to sabotage our nation’s health care system. My office will continue fighting to stop this unlawful dismantling and defend the essential services that protect our most vulnerable communities.”

New York joined Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia as plaintiffs in the suit.

The coalition claims the termination announcements caused turmoil in the department as its offices scrambled to function amid the sudden workforce reduction.

“There was no one to answer the phone, factories went into shutdown mode, experiments were abandoned, trainings were canceled, site visits were postponed, application portals were closed, laboratories stopped testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, and partnerships were immediately suspended,” the states claim in the lawsuit.

James said at a press conference announcing the suit that the Trump administration had cut lab capacity so much that “they have all but stopped testing for measles in the middle of an unprecedented measles outbreak.”

The cuts also left the World Trade Center Health Program with no doctors to certify new illnesses for coverage, violating requirements under the Zadroga Act that 9/11 survivors receive federal care, according to the states.

Gary Smiley, a 9/11 first responder, lambasted the government at a May 5 press conference for doing “reprehensible” harm to the 9/11 community.

“They promised they would not touch the program. They lied,” Smiley said.

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