A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from executing its plan to shrink and restructure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in response to a lawsuit filed by New York and 19 other states, which argued the funding and staff cuts would be detrimental to health care in those states.
The preliminary injunction was issued Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. New York and other states sued the Trump administration in May to stop it from executing a plan to cut about 20,000 federal public health workers and reduce the number of agencies within HHS from 28 to 15.
They argued that “dismantling” HHS hampered their ability to track infectious diseases and provide other public health services and that it violated mandates from Congress.
“The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” Judge Melissa R. DuBose wrote in her decision.
Andrew Nixon, HHS director of communications, said in a statement the agency disagrees with the decision but “remains committed to modernizing a health workforce that for too long prioritized institutional preservation over meaningful public health impact. We are reviewing the decision and considering next steps.”
He added: “We stand by our original decision to realign this organization with its core mission and refocus a sprawling bureaucracy that, over time, had become wasteful, inefficient, and resistant to change.”
When the restructuring was announced in March, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the goal was not just to make cuts. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” he said at the time.
When the lawsuit was filed in May, the federal government had already fired 10,000 employees and offered others buyouts. And states were already feeling the effects. The reduction of federal lab testing services for infectious diseases was already putting greater pressure on New York’s Wadsworth Center in Albany, the complaint stated.
In her ruling, DuBose ordered HHS not to issue any further layoff notices and to stop executing any existing ones. She also ordered the agency not to place any more employees on administrative leave.
“HHS is the backbone of our nation’s public health and social safety net – from cancer screenings and maternal health to early childhood education and domestic violence prevention,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement celebrating the decision. “Today's order guarantees these programs and services will remain accessible and halts the administration’s attempt to sabotage our nation’s health care system.”
DuBose ordered the Trump administration to file a status report by July 11 on its compliance with the order. Other courts have found the Trump administration slow to comply with injunctions blocking the implementation of executive decisions.
