Judge’s injunction on CDC funding leaves Republican-led states behind
The Trump administration’s cuts to public health funding for local and state health departments have hit Republican-led states harder than their Democrat counterparts, an analysis found. The results came after several attorneys general and cities filed lawsuits to restore reductions, causing the lopsided appearance of federal funds.
Senior administration officials canceled nearly 700 grants to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March, which supported several efforts made in the COVID-19 pandemic to vaccinate people, address health disparities and other health matters. The Department of Health and Human Services canceled about $11 billion worth of grants that, at first, evenly affected Democrat and Republican states, according to a KFF Health News analysis.
About two dozen lawsuits from top lawmakers and prosecutors in Democrat-led states restored nearly 80% of the cuts. But for Republican-led states, fewer than 5% of the cuts were restored. The KFF Health News tracked the number of grants as the DHHS database doesn’t often match what states confirmed.
The cuts followed a review by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the agency led by Elon Musk, which identified what it deemed wasteful spending within DHHS. A coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia sued DHHS and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the grant terminations, according to the California Attorney General’s Office.
Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said in May that a federal judge in Rhode Island issued an injunction against DHHS because the move unlawfully overstepped Congress’s authority in appropriations. Without the injunction, California would have lost more than $972 million.
DHHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told KFF that the agency has a commitment to protecting all Americans’ health, regardless of politics or geography.
“These funds were provided in response to the COVID pandemic, which is long over,” Nixon said. The World Health Organization, which has the authority to declare pandemics, has not declared the pandemic to be over. “We will continue working with states to strengthen public health infrastructure and ensure communities have the tools they need to respond to outbreaks and keep people safe.”
Grants terminated, restored
The two states hit the hardest by the reductions and restorations were California and Texas. In the case of California, the state received all of the grants DHHS tried to cut. On the other hand, Texas still has at least 30 grants that were canceled, the highest in the country.
Federal cuts came as the United States and Mexico dealt with rising cases and deaths from measles and the flu. The measles outbreak has since migrated north to Canada. According to the CDC, about 1,400 people were infected with the disease, which health professionals said mostly affected unvaccinated people.
The health site added that Colorado joined a lawsuit on the reductions, and had 10 of the 11 terminations restored. The state’s neighbors — Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Utah — didn’t join the litigation and lost a collective 55 grants.
States that sued were: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin plus D.C., according to court records.
Cuts harmed Ohio’s agencies
The Department of Health and Human Services’ reductions rattled through Ohio, a midwestern state with a Republican attorney general. The state didn’t join the litigation, which caused trouble in several health departments, KFF reported.
Jackson County Health Commissioner Kevin Aston told the nonprofit he had to lay off three people, a rare occurrence for the county. Federal funding helped 11 counties. Now, just one got support, KFF Health News reported.
The cities of Columbus, Harris County, Texas; Metro Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee and Kansas City, Missouri, all sued to block the cuts. A federal judge issued an injunction on the cuts.
The Association of Immunization Managers represents about 64 state, local and territorial immunization programs. Its chief policy and government relations officer Brent Ewig described the cuts to be a “predictable result of “boom, bust, panic, neglect funding” for public health.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
