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A coalition of California and other states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for a plan to cut billions of federal public health grants designed to make the state more resilient to infectious diseases, denounced controls by robbing them of power by supporting funds already allocated by Congress.
Fundraising pullbacks have been a devastating blow to the local health sector, many of which are dealing with large, novel outbreaks ranging from Covid-19 to avian flu and measles. A California-only agency is expected to lose nearly $1 billion.
“Congress has explicitly approved funds for grants in question to keep our country healthy and protect us from future pandemics,” California Atty said. General Rob Bonta said that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We cannot unilaterally eliminate that important federal funds.”
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified health agencies in all 50 states, including the California Department of Public Health, that they had suspended more than $11 billion in grants they had previously provided to support the state’s infection response during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic has subsided, the state has continued to use its funds to tackle a variety of infectious diseases.
The lawsuit filed against Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services in Rhode Island, California, is the latest in a series of lawsuits by 23 other states and the District of Columbia where the Department of Health and Human Services in the Federal Court of Rhode Island, federal court, opposes the administration’s waves and other funding cuts.
Several of the state’s previous lawsuits allege that Trump illegally seizes funding powers that belong to Congress rather than administrative agencies. The lawsuit on Tuesday alleges that the Trump administration violates the Administrative Procedure Act and calls for a temporary restraining order that will quickly restore public health funds to previously allocated levels.
Bonta’s office said the cuts, including $972 million in California’s funds, would cause “irreparable harm” to the state if they could withstand.
The California Department of Public Health said it would lose $800 million that it had planned to use in part to vaccinate 4.5 million children and improved logistics preparations to direct hospitals from hospitals to other health facilities in emergencies.
The office said the California Department of Healthcare Services would lose $119 million intended for use in drug use prevention and other early interventional health services for young people across the state. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also said it would lose $45 million, intended to be partially used to prevent the spread of measles and avian flu.
A county spokesperson said the cuts in funding would eliminate staff who work to alleviate the spread of illness in homeless shelters, schools, prisons and workplaces. It cuts work by the county’s mobile infectious disease teams to provide vaccines and other healthcare to residential residents, senior citizens in residential development, senior centers and other senior citizens who are limited to other living facilities. It also forestalizes upgrading to county data systems and other infrastructure needed to track infections and share timely outbreak information with the public.
Some of these system upgrades are already in progress. This means cutting funds will waste past investments. Additionally, in addition to increasing the likelihood of system failure in emergencies, the spokeswoman said.
CDC’s funding cuts are part of a much larger effort by the Trump administration and the Trump administration’s “efficiency” advisor Elon Musk to fundamentally cut federal spending, and part of the tax cut payments critics argue that it disproportionately benefits the wealthy.
The world’s richest Musk and his government department’s efficiency, not the actual government sector, but is granted access to sensitive government facilities, computer networks and other data, and is empowered to significantly cut government budgets, which California is also suing.
CDC cuts are not the first for public health. Kennedy has also announced plans to cut the Health Department’s workforce with around 20,000 employees. The Trump administration reportedly intends to close buildings in various health and welfare communities, including California.
On Tuesday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) issued a statement denounced by Kennedy calling the San Francisco Regional Office of Health and Welfare a “reported decision.”
“By closing our regional office, the Trump administration will choose to put the health and safety of Bay Area residents and all Californians at risk and place important public health initiatives like the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.
She said Kennedy’s “extreme views on public health are out of stage with the majority of Americans,” and that closures of “myopia” would ” directly hurt our most vulnerable communities and make America sick,” and that she and others would fight against public health closures and other cuts.
The lawsuit on Tuesday is the ninth filed by Bonta’s office against the current Trump administration. He also submitted support for litigators against the administration in at least half a dozen other cases.
California has been ground zero for H5N1 bird flu since March last year. Thirty-eight people in the state have been infected with the virus, most of whom are dairy workers exposed while handling infected cows and milk. But the two were children. The cause of their infection has not been determined. The virus has also infected a herd of 758 dairy cows. This is more than 75% of the state’s total dairy products.
In addition to thousands of seasonal influenza, Covid-19, norovirus and other respiratory virus cases, there have been eight measles cases in California since the beginning of the year.
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