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u.s. department of health and human services
Trump Administration Slammed for Slashing $12 Billion in Funding for State Health Services
"These are not people who want to make America healthy," said one advocate for people with disabilities. "They want to make the sick disappear."
Mar 26, 2025
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled more than $12 billion in federal funding for state health departments across the nation, money that is used to track infectious diseases and provide mental health services, addiction treatment, and other critical care.
NBC Newsreported Wednesday that $11.4 billion of the canceled grants were earmarked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for state and community health departments, nongovernmental organizations, and international recipients following the Covid-19 pandemic. Around $1 billion worth of grants are being pulled from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
"The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President [Donald] Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
This is just stunning. HHS has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.
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— Charles Ornstein ( @charlesornstein.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
However, experts point to the certainty of future pandemics—like an avian flu strain that mutates to pass between humans—in urging public health policy planners to maintain or even increase preparedness and response funding.
NBC News reported that the 13 agencies overseen by HHS were sent notices starting Monday, which informed them that they have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures.
For some state and community healthcare providers, the effects of the cuts were immediate.
There was an abrupt $11B cut to local/state public health (PH) infrastructure yesterday. I don't think people realize what this means: -Want an updated system to check your immunizations instead of digging through docs? PH no longer able to carry out upgrades to immunization information systems
— Katelyn Jetelina ( @kkjetelina.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 11:34 AM
As The New York Timesreported:
In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city's director of public health.
On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine, and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.
In interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of health department employees and contract workers could lose their jobs nationwide. Some predicted the loss of as much as 90% of staff from some infectious disease teams.
"We learned yesterday that the federal government has unilaterally terminated approximately $226 million in grants to Minnesota Department of Health related to the Covid-19 pandemic," Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham said in a statement. "This termination is effective immediately and impacts ongoing work and contracts. This action was sudden and unexpected."
Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, toldCBS News that much of the funding would have expired soon anyway.
"It's ending in the next six months," she said. "There's no reason—why rescind it now? It's just cruel and unusual behavior."
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment communications director Kristina Iodice toldNBC News, "We are concerned that this sudden loss of federal funding threatens Colorado's ability to track Covid-19 trends and other emerging diseases, modernize disease data systems, respond to outbreaks, and provide critical immunization access, outreach, and education—leaving communities more vulnerable to future public health crises."
The first Trump administration was widely criticized for shortcomings in these fields. A congressional panel issued a 2022 report accusing top administration officials of "failed stewardship" and a "persistent pattern of political interference" that undermined the nation's response to Covid-19, which to date has killed more than 1.2 million people in the United States and is still claiming hundreds of lives each week, according to CDC figures.
Wednesday's reportingd came as HHS, CDC, and other critical agencies braced for more cuts and layoffs ordered by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his aides are also "nearing their final decisions on a sweeping restructuring of the department," CBS Newsreported last week.
Last month, Senate Democrats demanded answers from Kennedy regarding the purge of more than 5,000 HHS workers after the agency "blindly followed" a "baseless directive" by Trump and DOGE that the lawmakers said is "blatantly undermining Americans' health and safety."
As Common Dreamsreported Wednesday, public health experts have also condemned the administration's decision to terminate funding for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance—a move critics warned could result in the deaths of over 1 million children in the Global South.
"Investing in Gavi brings other benefits for our world and the American people," the alliance said. "Here's why: By maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against deadly diseases like Ebola, mpox, and yellow fever, we help keep America safe. These diseases do not respect borders, they can cross continents in hours and cost billions of dollars."
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Banning NIH Grant Meetings, Trump Circumvents Courts That Blocked Funding Freeze
"The discoveries that aren't made—you can't point to them, because they will never be made."
Feb 22, 2025
The Trump administration's attempt to freeze all federal grants, including those at the National Institutes of Health, has been temporarily blocked since late last month, when two federal judges ruled that President Donald Trump did not have the authority to pull back the funding—but new reporting on Friday detailed how the administration has circumvented the rulings, threatening critical funding for biomedical research.
As The New York Timesreported, the Trump administration has issued an order "forbidding health officials from giving public notice of upcoming grant review meetings," blocking "an obscure but necessary cog in the grant-making machinery that delivers some $47 billion annually to research on Alzheimer's, heart disease, and other ailments."
Notices are required before any federal meetings can be held, and the order led to the cancellation of 42 out of 47 previously-scheduled NIH grant application meetings this week, impacting research that would have studied pancreatic cancer, addiction, brain injuries, and children's health, among other subjects.
Without public notices being posted in the Federal Register by the NIH, about 16,000 grant applications asking for $1.5 billion in research funding have already been stalled, reportedNPR.
"Applications will come in and basically they go into a black hole and nothing can be done with them," one person who remained anonymous told NPR. "That is where we are now."
The Times reported that an email from an NIH official on February 7 stated that the order blocking public notices "came from the HHS level," referring to the Department of Health and Human Services. The ban was in effect "indefinitely," said the official.
"Applications will come in and basically they go into a black hole and nothing can be done with them. That is where we are now."
"People in every community have to understand what gutting NIH funding means," said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on Saturday. "The cures unlocked by NIH-funded researchers might one day save your life—but because of Trump and [Department of Government Efficiency head Elon] Musk, now they might never be discovered at all."
Many health researchers and others who rely on federal grants breathed a sigh of relief when Trump's funding freeze was blocked by the judicial system late last month, and Judge Angel Kelley of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Friday extended a separate order that aimed to cut about $4 billion in grants that it provides for "indirect costs" such as lab equipment and facilities maintenance.
Regarding Trump's broader federal funding freeze, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island heard arguments in the case on Friday, and said he hopes to issue a final ruling in about a week following his temporary restraining order last month.
But unless it is lifted, the HHS order blocking grant review meetings will likely lead to "missing" discoveries, researchers toldThe Washington Post on Saturday.
Without the ability to secure grant funding, research organizations are preparing to lay off researchers and accept fewer students to work in their laboratories, the Post reported.
"The discoveries that aren't made—you can't point to them, because they will never be made," Jeremy Berg, former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, told the Post. "The hard part is you don't know what you missed until years later, when something doesn't happen."
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'Abdication of Your Sworn Duty': Senate Dems Grill RFK Jr on Mass Firing of Health Workers
They warn cuts "will endanger children, seniors, and at-risk communities, set medical progress back by decades, curtail patient access to care, and make the nation less prepared for emerging public health threats."
Feb 21, 2025
Senate Democrats on Friday demanded answers from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding the purge of more than 5,000 agency workers after HHS "blindly followed" a "baseless directive" by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that the lawmakers said is "blatantly undermining Americans' health and safety."
In one
letter to Kennedy signed by all 45 Democratic senators plus Independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the lawmakers said that "as HHS secretary, the consequences of epidemics, lost treatments, and lack of access to care are your responsibility."
"The Trump administration is firing staff and harming programs that Americans rely on every day."
"These firings represent the abdication of your sworn duty to ensure the health and well-being of America's families," the letter states. "You have an obligation to the American people, who rely on you as the nation's top public health official, to stop these ill-conceived and dangerous attacks on agencies and programs that Americans rely on every day."
"These uninformed, baseless firings will reportedly continue across HHS under your leadership," the senators continued. "The Trump administration is firing staff and harming programs that Americans rely on every day, and these arbitrary cuts will endanger children, seniors, and at-risk communities, set medical progress back by decades, curtail patient access to care, and make the nation less prepared for emerging public health threats."
The lawmakers want to know:
- How many HHS employees were fired between January 20, 2025 and February 18, 2025?
- How many of these employees were probationary?
- How were HHS employees notified that they were being fired, and on what grounds?
- What, if any, analysis was conducted prior to firings to determine the immediate and long-term impact they will have?
- What role did the Department of Government Efficiency have in identifying or prioritizing employees for termination?
- What metrics did DOGE use in doing so?
- What specific guidance was given to HHS for identifying additional employees to lay off?
Roll Callreported that Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) also sent Kennedy a letter on Friday, this one expressing concern that mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration—an HHS agency—could adversely affect food safety and drug and medical device approvals.
"Without adequate staff at each center that receives user fees, the FDA may not be able to collect or spend user fees for the upcoming fiscal year," the lawmakers wrote, according to Roll Call. "This would be seriously detrimental to our medical drug and device programs by slowing the premarket review process, stifling innovation and preventing patients from accessing potentially lifesaving products."
Ten Senate Democrats so far have also signed a letter to Trump condemning the looming layoff of hundreds of staff at the Indian Health Service (IHS)—another HHS agency—amidst a healthcare worker shortage in Indigenous communities across the nation.
"Not only will this lead to worse health outcomes, but overall costs will also rise," the letter argues. "With less healthcare services at existing IHS facilities, there will be increased Purchased Referred Care referrals. This will increase costs for the federal government and require increased travel, accommodations, and expenses, creating increased hardships and barriers for patients and families seeking care far from where they live on tribal lands."
The lawmakers' letters come as thousands of federal workers—especially those employed under probationary conditions—are being fired from their jobs, many under what critics claim are false pretexts of poor performance.
The HHS layoffs also come amid
fears that Trump will not protect Medicare after the president's Thursday endorsement of a plan by GOP House lawmakers that would slash social spending so severely that even far-right Sen. Josh Hawley (D-Mo.) has warned against it. This, in order to fund an extension of the president's 2017 "tax scam" that primarily benefited the wealthy.
Early Friday, Senate Republicans
approved a separate and narrower budget resolution after rejecting Democratic amendments to avert cuts to federal health and other social programs.
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