A coalition of attorneys normal in 19 states and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration over its “unconstitutional dismantling” of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
The lawsuit seeks to cease the “restructuring” overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing the trouble has gutted the company and destroyed life-saving applications, inflicting important hurt for the plaintiff states.
The lawsuit was filed in federal courtroom in Washington D.C. on Monday, New York Lawyer Common Letitia James (D) stated.
“This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” James stated in an announcement. “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.”
Attorneys normal 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 criticism.
The layoffs started April 1 as a part of a restructuring effort introduced simply days earlier than. HHS eradicated 10,000 workers, collapsed 28 companies into 15 and closed half of HHS’s ten regional places of work.
The plan affected each kind of HHS employee throughout all divisions of the company. However the lawsuit notes the layoffs primarily focused “disfavored work and programs” at sure companies, together with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA).
“In its first three months, Secretary Kennedy and this administration deprived HHS of the resources necessary to do its job,” the attorneys normal wrote. “The terminations and reorganizations happened quickly, but the consequences are severe, complicated, and potentially irreversible.”
For example, the layoffs triggered the FDA to overlook a vaccine utility deadline and cancel a essential check for the chicken flu virus, inflicting the testing program to be suspended for the remainder of 2025, in keeping with the lawsuit
HHS officers have insisted that the company’s huge staffing cuts have been carried out rigorously.
However the lawsuit famous that “to date, the Department has stonewalled all efforts to learn which positions were terminated and who received a RIF [reduction in force] notice.”
Kennedy was requested to testify concerning the restructuring within the Senate Well being Committee on April 10, however as an alternative will not seem till Might 14, ostensibly to speak concerning the White Home funds request — which proposes even steeper company cuts. Kennedy will doubtless face heated questions on the small print of the layoffs.
The attorneys normal argue the chaos and devastation will not be simply collateral injury, however the administration’s supposed consequence. They allege the Trump administration has violated a whole bunch of legal guidelines, bypassed congressional authority and “trampled the constitutional separation of powers.”
They need a choose to vacate the directive and to require the restoration of essential well being applications.
