Arizona among 23 states suing Trump administration over health funding cuts

PHOENIX (AP/AZFamily) — A coalition of state attorneys general, including Arizona’s, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its decision to cut $11 billion in federal funds that go toward COVID-19 initiatives and various public health projects across the country.

“This is our 8th lawsuit and we’ll keep suing if they keep doing illegal things,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

She says she is fighting back against another reduction in federal spending. This time, the Trump Administration is looking to cut billions of dollars in grants related to COVID-19.

“This is money that would is going to opioid treatment and addiction services. It’s money to pay for rural nurses and nurses who are helping people, especially in rural Arizona. And it’s going to make sure that we can monitor, surveil and prevent the next pandemic,” she explained.

Mayes argued this money would improve the response to future emergencies.

“I cannot overstate how reckless and illegal these cuts are,” she said in a news release. “By slashing these grants, the Trump administration has launched an all-out attack on Arizona’s public health system—harming the entire state but hitting rural communities the hardest. These cuts target the very places that rely most on this critical funding. Eliminating it would devastate our already precarious system and cost jobs across Arizona, from doctors to tribal health workers. I will fight this every step of the way.”

Attorneys general from 23 states filed the suit in federal court in Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. They include Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, as well as attorneys general in California, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.

According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the state stands to lose more than $239 million from the HHS cancellations. The office adds that the cuts will impact many healthcare providers’ jobs, employees at tribal grant partners, grants for rural county health departments, non-profits and more. See the full news release here.

When asked about RFK Jr.’s stance that this is part of the initiative to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ Mayes said: “It’s ridiculous. How outrageous, how disgusting of RFK Jr. to say that it’s going to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ when he’s going to deprive Arizona of vaccinations. When he’s going to deprive Arizonans of opioid treatment services? When he’s going to deprive our state of the ability to surveil for the next pandemic?”

The lawsuit argues the cuts are illegal and will result in “serious harm to public health” that will put states “at greater risk for future pandemics and the spread of otherwise preventable disease and cutting off vital public health services.”

“With this single threat, Secretary Kennedy has all but ensured that more Arizonans will get sick and die the next time we suffer an infectious disease outbreak, or god forbid, another pandemic,” Mayes said.

The lawsuit asks the court to immediately stop the Trump administration from rescinding the money allocated by Congress during the pandemic, which is mostly used for COVID-related efforts such as testing and vaccination. The money also went to addiction and mental health programs.

“Slashing this funding now will reverse our progress on the opioid crisis, throw our mental health systems into chaos, and leave hospitals struggling to care for patients,” James said Tuesday in a news release.

“Congress decided that this money should go out to the states regardless of when the pandemic and COVID ended,” Mayes added.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department began serving employees dismissal notices on Tuesday in what’s expected to total 10,000 layoffs. The department does not comment on ongoing litigation.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon pointed to the agency’s statement from last week when the decision to claw back the money was announced. The HHS said then that it “will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

“I mean, it is absolutely insane that at a time when we have a measles outbreak that is one state away from us over in New Mexico and we’re dealing with the bird flu, and we’re likely to deal with some other pandemic in the future, that the President and the federal government is trying to deprive us of $239 million that we need to fight these things,” Mayes said.

Already, more than two dozen COVID-related research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health have been canceled.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from March shows that the virus killed 411 people each week on average, even though the federal public health emergency has ended.

Local and state public health departments are still assessing the impact of the loss of funds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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