RI Sues Trump Admin. to Keep $31M RI Health Grants

PROVIDENCE, RI  — A measles outbreak and mounting bird flu outbreak threaten the nation, challenges the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services  are responding to by illegally cutting nearly $11 billion in public health grants to the states, including $31 million in RI Health grants.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha  is co-leading a coalition of 24 attorneys general in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for abruptly and illegally terminating the funding.

The RI Health Grants terminations came with no warning or legally valid explanation, according to Neronha. The cuts have quickly caused chaos for state health agencies that rely on the funds for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as infectious disease management, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing public health infrastructure.

“This massive and egregiously irresponsible cut of public health funding should put everyone on high alert to the depths this Administration is willing to go,” said Neronha. “First and foremost, Americans expect their government to protect them from harm. By eliminating billions in critical funding for essential public health initiatives, the Administration is effectively telling the American people to fend for themselves. Here in Rhode Island, these cuts will defund programs which ensure our children are properly vaccinated and immunized from preventable disease, and which address health disparities in low-income communities, among others.”

Friday, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressmen Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding that the bipartisan-approved RI Health Grants be delivered to the state as intended by the law.

The illegal termination of health grant funding is the latest in President Donald Trump’s coup grasping Congress’s power of the purse, or funding powers, which Rhode Island’s delegation has called out and opposed since the first days of Trump’s assault on the Constitution and federal agencies he is charged with, under oath, administering faithfully.

If the funding is not restored, important state public health programs and initiatives will have to be dissolved or disbanded, including those that focus on childhood vaccination and immunization, health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations, and laboratory testing capacity, Neronha noted in a statement about the suit.

The HHS cuts threaten the urgent public health needs of states around the country at a time when emerging disease threats—such as measles and bird flu—are on the rise,  Neronha warned.

Congress authorized and appropriated new and increased funding for these grants in COVID-19-related legislation to support critical public health needs. 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. Yet, with no legal authority or explanation, Secretary Kennedy’s HHS agencies on March 24 arbitrarily terminated these grants “for cause” effective immediately claiming that the pandemic is over, and the grants are no longer necessary.

“Funding was also provided to address the many systemic weaknesses in our public health infrastructure, strengthening our capacity to respond to future disease outbreaks, protect vulnerable populations, and improve communications with the public. Regrettably, CDC’s decision to terminate these funds will undermine these efforts, and Rhode Island’s public health system will be degraded,” Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation wrote to Kennedy.

The delegation also noted the significant impacts that not restoring this critical federal funding will have on the Ocean State’s public health, public safety, and the economy, specifically around the Rhode Island Department Health’s new $82 million state-of-the-art public health laboratory.

“The new Rhode Island State Health Laboratory will be a crucial piece of the puzzle in investigating and mitigating life-threatening diseases. It will also provide important services for State and municipal agencies to ensure the safety of drinking water and food products; monitor pollution of air and water; and aid public safety and criminal investigations through police officer training, DNA testing, and illegal drug identification,” the delegation noted. “While work on the building will continue, its ability to provide the scope of services Rhode Island needs will be limited because the CDC is cutting over $15 million in funding that will help staff the facility and equip it with the latest testing capabilities,” the delegation’s letter said.

Rhode Island Director of Health Dr. Jerry Larkin elaborated on the work that the funding supports. “These grants support critical work to prevent deadly infectious diseases, ensure people are vaccinated, prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness, modernize many of our core laboratory functions, Medical Examiner’s Office, and public health data systems, amongst other work. These are public health services that Rhode Islanders paid for and deserve. I want to thank the legal team and program staff at RIDOH and the Attorney General’s Office for all the work that went into today’s filing,” Larkin said.

In their lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, the coalition of attorneys general assert 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. HHS’ position, up until a few days ago, was that the end of the pandemic did not affect the availability of these grant funds. Moreover, for some of the grants, termination “for cause” is not a permissible basis for termination, yet the federal government unlawfully terminated them.

With this lawsuit, Attorney General Neronha and the coalition are seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate Secretary Kennedy’s and HHS’ mass 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.

RI Health Grants cut: What the Ocean State loses

Last week RIDOH, received notice of the termination of four grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that represented roughly $31 million in public health funding, according to the RIDOH. These grants originally came to RIDOH during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as they were renewed over time, their scopes were expanded by CDC to prepare Rhode Island for future pandemics and strengthen the public health system in Rhode Island. For example, these grants support:

• Surveillance, outbreak response, engagement in care, and other infectious disease prevention and control activities. This decreases rates of infectious diseases in Rhode Island, including respiratory pathogens, foodborne illnesses, HIV, hepatitis C, congenital syphilis, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and tuberculosis. It also helps prevent disease clusters and outbreaks.

• Occupational health, biosafety risk activities, biosafety training, and other functions. This funding also supports some core laboratory functions and administration as well as the replacement of obsolete laboratory equipment and systems (for example, a modernized Laboratory Information Management System).
• The public health infrastructure that surrounds vaccination in Rhode Island. This includes vaccination clinics, partnerships with community organizations to promote vaccination and increase vaccine confidence, proper vaccine storage, and upgrading our immunization registry. This work and these systems help Rhode Island maintain some of the highest vaccination rates in the country across all vaccine-preventable diseases (e.g., measles and other childhood vaccines, and seasonal vaccinations).

Author: Rob Borkowski

Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at editor@warwickpost.com with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.