Delaware files lawsuit to block federal cuts to public health services  

Delaware has joined 22 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit to preserve $12 billion in federal public health grants, including $38 million in grants to the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services for public health, behavioral health and substance abuse services. 

“With measles and bird flu on the rise, we need to reinforce public health, not undermine it,” said Attorney General Kathleen Jennings in a press release. “Rural communities will be among the first to suffer, but make no mistake, nobody is immune from the impact of these cuts. We’re going to continue to fight this administration’s unconstitutional efforts to bypass Congress.” 

Delaware received notification March 25 of the retroactive termination of funding from the Trump administration, which was effective a day earlier. Officials said they were notified that appropriate expenses incurred prior to that date would be reimbursed, but all attempts to draw the funds have been rejected. 

The funding terminations affect approved grant commitments to fund six public and mental health grants through its Division of Public Health and Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. These include the Community Health Workers Grant; Health Disparities Grant; Immunization Grant; Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases Grant; Substance Use Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Services Block Grant; and block grants for community mental health services. 

These grants also support 62 state merit full-time employment positions, and contracted staff employed by community providers to administer the programs. 

“The Trump administration is stealing $38 million from Delaware that goes directly toward funding key public health programs,” said Gov. Matt Meyer in a press release. “Programs that provide targeted case management to prevent overdoses, mental health services to prevent suicides and immunization programs that prevent deadly diseases like measles, polio and tetanus. It is clear the Trump administration doesn’t care about 'making America healthy again' or lowering healthcare costs. They’d rather place more stress on our already overburdened healthcare system.” 

To mitigate the catastrophic impacts of these grant cancellations, Meyer said the state will support 30 days of continued work to avoid immediate layoffs and allow programs to wind down or be transferred to other funding sources.

The multi-state lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for terminating nearly $12 billion in public health grants with a potential of $38 million lost by Delaware.

If the funding is not restored, state public health programs and initiatives will have to be dissolved or disbanded, including investments in COVID immunizations, community health workers and mental health services, Jennings said. 

Many of these grants are from specific programs created by Congress, such as block grants to states for mental health and substance abuse and addiction services, Jennings said, and were terminated “for cause” effective immediately claiming that the pandemic is over and the grants are no longer necessary.  

The lawsuit states that the mass terminations violate federal law because the end of the pandemic is not a “for cause” basis for ending the grants, especially since none of the appropriated funds are tied to the end of the pandemic which occurred more than a year ago. 

Jennings and the coalition are seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate grant terminations in the suing states, arguing that the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The states are also asking the court to prevent HHS from maintaining or reinstating the terminations and any agency actions implementing them. 

In addition to Delaware, the states participating in the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.