New York Attorney General Letitia James has led a coalition of 19 other state attorneys general, including William Tong of Connecticut, in filing a lawsuit to try to stop the Trump Administration from dismantling the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Rhode Island.
The lawsuit says that since putting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in place as secretary of the department thousands of federal health workers have been fired, life-saving programs have been shut down, and states have had to face mounting health crises without federal support.
James and the coalition argue that Kennedy and the Trump Administration have stripped HHS of the resources that are necessary to effectively serve the American people. They ask the court to halt the dismantling before even more lives are put at risk.
The lawsuit points out that Kennedy announced that the department’s 28 agencies would be collapsed into 15. He also announced mass firings, slashing the department’s number of employees from 85,000 to 65,000. According to the lawsuit, on April 1, 10,000 employees were locked out of their work email, laptops, and offices without warning. Many only learned they had been terminated when they arrived at work to find their badges deactivated. In a matter of hours, critical HHS operations ground to a halt. Experiments were abandoned, trainings canceled, site visits postponed, and labs shuttered.
“This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” James said. “When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant patients, and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe or children thrive, you are not making America healthy; you are putting countless lives at risk.”
James points out that programs serving children and low-income families have been particularly hard hit. She says that programs aiding children with disabilities, youth experiencing homelessness, and preschool development have been left in limbo. The administration also fired staff responsible for maintaining the federal poverty guidelines, which states rely on to determine eligibility for food assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), housing support, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The entire team running the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was terminated. The administration fired hundreds of employees working on mental health and addiction treatment, including half of the entire workforce at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and closed all ten SAMHSA regional offices. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline team was slashed. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health was stopped and the agency that focuses on prevention of tobacco use was gutted.
James and the coalition argue that the Trump Administration intends to cause chaos and devastate health care in the U.S. They allege the Trump Administration has violated hundreds of laws, bypassed congressional authority, trampled the constitutional separation of powers, and ignored laws that Congress enacted to protect public health.
“The terminations and reorganizations happened quickly, but the consequences are severe, complicated, drawn-out, and potentially irreversible,” the lawsuit says.
In addition to New York and Connecticut, the lawsuit involves the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
