President Donald Trump's administration must put the brakes on slashing billions in federal money for public health departments, a federal judge said Friday.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction request in the lawsuit brought last month by a coalition of Democrat-led states, allowing the money to keep flowing.
“If we don’t have our health, we don’t have anything, and that’s why today’s preliminary injunction is such a critical win,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement, adding later: “A hacksaw approach to government reduction will never yield positive results for the American people, and we will continue to fight, and win, in court to minimize the harm the Trump Administration is causing the people of this country.”
The lawsuit filed April 1 by 23 states and the District of Columbia sought to immediately halt $11 billion in cuts, alleging that it would decimate public health infrastructure across the country. The money, allocated by Congress during the pandemic, supported COVID-19 initiatives and mental health and substance abuse efforts.
The federal government argued that because the pandemic is over, the states no longer need the money. But McElroy, who granted a temporary restraining order last month in the case, wrote in her decision that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn't have the power to decide that money isn't necessary anymore.
She went on to say that the agency ignored multiple requirements that govern how block grant programs are terminated, calling the federal government's argument for how it handled the situation “puzzling.”
McElroy wrote that the federal government's decision to rescind the money isn't just an economic loss — “ample evidence” provided by the states shows that it will decimate "key mental health, substance abuse, and other healthcare programs ... worsening public health outcomes and placing their residents at risk.”
She pointed to several instances of what the money funded, like vaccination efforts and building up disease surveillance and labs for “future health threats,” before writing, “The Court could go on.”
The injunction only applies to the states involved in the lawsuit. The federal government must file documentation that they're complying with the order by Tuesday evening.
“We’re going to continue our lawsuit to protect the health and well-being of millions of Americans," New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X shortly after the decision.
Health departments across the country have said they've laid off employees after the Trump administration began to claw back the money in late March.
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Devna Bose, The Associated Press
