Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware join lawsuit against HHS federal cuts to health departments and programs

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A coalition of states is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop the termination of $11 billion in grant funding to public health departments and programs.

Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania joined 20 other states and Washington, D.C. in filing a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration. The suit comes about a week after state and local agencies were notified about funding cuts to services that support mental health care, substance use treatment, infectious disease monitoring and more.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, state attorneys general and governors said the cuts “immediately triggered chaos for state and local health jurisdictions.”

If the funding, which was previously appropriated by Congress during the COVID-19 public health emergency, is not restored, plaintiffs stated that certain public health programming and services “will have to be dissolved or disbanded.”

The multistate lawsuit, led by Democratic attorneys general and governors, seeks a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to freeze the funding cuts.

“Cutting hundreds of millions of dollars isn’t just illegal; it’s also reckless,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

Local state, county and city departments said they were reassessing their options after receiving news about the cuts last week. Some leaders warned that funding losses would limit access to health care and social services.

In Pennsylvania, the cuts amount to more than $495 million to the following state departments: Health, Human Services and Drug and Alcohol Programs, according to the lawsuit. The money supports about 150 commonwealth staff and contractors.

“Losing these grant funds will mean an inability to provide allocations to local treatment authorities for substance use disorder intervention, treatment, and recovery services,” the lawsuit states.

Funding losses would also impact awards to “private entities that deliver recovery support services, employment services, pregnancy support services, and drop-in centers directly to persons who have or are in recovery from [substance use disorder],” Pennsylvania officials said.

HHS includes federal agencies and departments like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The changes to HHS grant funding also affect the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement, which supports state and local health departments to prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

In New Jersey, the state Department of Health has used ELC grant money to support 94 local health departments “to cover staff; data infrastructure; community outreach and education; infectious disease preparedness; coordination and crisis response; renovations and facility improvements; and professional development and training,” according to court documents.

The Garden State would also see cuts to its SAMHSA grants, which fund mental health programs.

“The abrupt termination leaves the New Jersey Department of Human Services with no ability to ensure that these individuals will be appropriately transitioned to other services,” plaintiffs stated in their lawsuit. “This disruption of care could be life-threatening.”