• Posted April 3, 2025

23 States Sue Over $12B in Public Health Cuts

A group of 23 states and Washington, D.C., is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over a sudden cut of $12 billion in public health funding.

The lawsuit says the rollback will disrupt vital services. It was filed Tuesday and asks the court to stop the cuts right away.

Most of the money -- roughly $11.4 billion -- was clawed back last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CNN reported.

These funds were originally given to states and local health departments during the pandemic. 

Another $1 billion cut came from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

HHS said it does not comment on ongoing litigation, CNN reported.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago. HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” the agency said in a statement last week.

But state leaders argue the funds were meant to support long-term improvements to public health -- not just for COVID. 

“Slashing this funding now will reverse our progress on the opioid crisis, throw our mental health systems into chaos, and leave hospitals struggling to care for patients,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, said in a news release.

New York could lose more than $400 million, according to the release.

Dr. Joseph Kanter, CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said the money was helping improve testing for diseases and outbreaks.

“This funding was appropriated by Congress and obligated to health departments with work plans, budgets, and timelines approved by federal agencies,” Kanter said in a statement. 

“With congressional and executive branch support, these funds were being used to modernize data systems, bolster laboratory capacity, improve electronic case reporting of time-sensitive infectious disease outbreaks, improve H5N1 and measles testing, and enhance biomedical terrorism preparedness, to name just a few examples,” Kanter added. “We worry the abrupt loss of these activities will impair states and territories in their ability to respond to current and future threats.”

The lawsuit says the Trump administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by canceling funds that Congress had already approved.

“When people talk about there being a constitutional crisis, this is what they’re talking about," said Daniel Karon, a Cleveland-based attorney who is not involved in the lawsuit.

“When Congress says, ‘Spend on this,’ the legislative branch has spoken. But let’s say the executive branch replies, ‘We don’t feel like spending that way.’ Then the judicial branch gets involved and says, ‘We’re the final decisionmaker and have been for centuries, and Congress said to spend this way.’ Yet the executive branch says to the Supreme Court, ‘We don’t care what you think; we’re still not going spend that way,’ similar to the way the executive branch ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling in TikTok,” Karon concluded. “Now you have the three branches of government fighting with each other. There’s your constitutional crisis.”

More information

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy group, is tracking ongoing federal budget cuts.

SOURCE: CNN, April 1, 2025