Rhode Island Among States & DC Suing Federal HHS, RFK Jr. Over Loss of $12 Billion in Funding

Rhode Island Among States & DC Suing Federal HHS, RFK Jr. Over Loss of $12 Billion in Funding

Democratic attorneys general and governors in 23 states and Washington, DC - including Rhode Island - have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleging that the department’s sudden rollback of $12 billion in public health funding was unlawful and harmful.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, marking just the latest federal action in the jurisdiction. 

In the 43-page complaint, the plaintiff states are seeking a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to immediately halt the administration’s funding cuts which they say will lead to key public health services being discontinued along with thousands of health-care workers losing their jobs.

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“Investments in public health make our communities healthier and safer, and they save lives,” said Rhode Island Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “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," added Larkin. "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.” 

 

Funding in Focus

As GoLocal was first to report, last week, RIDOH said it 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. These grants originally came to RIDOH during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

RIDOH says that "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."

According to RIDOH, the grants funded the following: 

• 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).  

RIDOH said Tuesday it will continue to coordinate with the Office of the Rhode Island Attorney General, the Governor’s Office, and EOHHS as this suit moves forward.