Filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, the attorneys general argue that the Trump administration is supporting HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of “evisceration of the Department.”
They pointed to the layoffs throughout HHS that have effectively eliminated entire offices including Head Start and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. HHS announced plans of laying off 10,000 employees on March 27.
“The World Trade Center Health Program had no doctors to certify new illnesses for coverage,” they noted in their suit.
Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia all signed onto the complaint.
“This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said in a statement.
“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.”
HHS officials have insisted that the agency’s massive staffing cuts have been performed carefully.
Kennedy was asked to testify about the restructuring in the Senate Health Committee on April 10, but instead won’t appear until May 14, ostensibly to talk about the White House budget request — which proposes even steeper agency cuts. Kennedy will likely face heated questions on the details of the layoffs.
The attorneys general are asking that the March 27 order be declared unlawful, in violation of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. They also ask that HHS be prohibited from further enforcing the March 27 order.
