MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul and a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia secured a court order on Friday that prevents the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Sec. Robert Kennedy, Jr. from abruptly terminating critical public health grants, including more than $200 million in potential cuts to Wisconsin.
“The misguided and unlawful cuts at issue in this case would deprive Wisconsin of over $200 million in funding,” said AG Kaul. “This decision is an important victory in our effort to safeguard funds that benefit the health of Wisconsinites.”
Mary McElroy, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction, which Kaul and the coalition moved for in early April. In Friday’s order, McElroy stated that “the healthcare funding terminations would constrain the States’ infectious disease research, thwart treatment efforts to those struggling with mental health and addiction, and impact the availability of vaccines to children, the elderly, and those living in rural communities.”
The grant terminations would also carry numerous other disruptions to public health care needs, such as infectious disease management, emergency preparedness, substance abuse services, and modernizing public health infrastructure.
Wisconsin stands to lose more than $200 million from these HHS grant cancellations if they were to go into effect. Without this funding, important state public health programs and initiatives in Wisconsin would have to be dissolved or disbanded, including various substance abuse prevention and treatment programs; projects to expand rural health initiatives and to improve EMS infrastructure throughout the state; community mental health services; projects to improve state, tribal, and local responses to public health crises; infectious disease research; and pan-coronavirus vaccine development.
More information on the lawsuit filing is available here.
View this press release on the DOJ website here.
