Over one-third of U.S. states are urging a federal judge to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to cut 20,000 Department of Health and Human Services employees, arguing the move could have dangerous and long-lasting effects on public health.Nineteen states — including Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland — along with Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island on Monday, May 5. HHS Secretary ...
Over one-third of U.S. states are urging a federal judge to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to cut 20,000 Department of Health and Human Services employees, arguing the move could have dangerous and long-lasting effects on public health.
Nineteen states — including Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland — along with Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island on Monday, May 5. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in March that the agency would cut nearly 25 percent of its workforce as part of Trump’s push to overhaul the federal government and reduce spending.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is spearheading the lawsuit, called the cuts “reckless, irrational, and dangerous."
Kennedy, a longtime and controversial health care advocate, said the cuts would be made through layoffs, buyouts, and early retirement offers. He said the move would help "realign" the nation's priorities to fight the "chronic disease epidemic."
“We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl," Kennedy said, "we are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
The cuts to HHS began in early April and led to a "sudden halt" in crucial operations, the lawsuit said.
Phone lines went unanswered, factories shut down, research experiments were abandoned, trainings were canceled, site visits were delayed, application portals were closed, and laboratories stopped testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis. Partnerships with external organizations were also immediately suspended.
According to the suit, the cuts have disrupted vital services that help keep Americans safe, including low-income home energy assistance, medical care for 9/11 responders with cancer linked to Ground Zero exposure, and programs monitoring newborn health.
Epidemiologists fear that the whirlwind of cuts will hinder the Centers for Disease Control's ability to identify, track, and isolate potential outbreaks like COVID-19 before they become a worldwide concern.
The complaint further alleges that the workforce reductions disproportionately impacted certain agencies within HHS, rather than being evenly distributed.
"(Secretary Kennedy) agreed that he forewent a careful line-by-line review of who should be fired because 'it takes too long' and he would lose 'political momentum' — making plain that the process used to determine layoffs was arbitrary and capricious," the lawsuit said.
An HHS spokesperson rejected those claims, telling CBS News the department followed all regulations and expects the judge to side with the Trump administration.
"We are following the law, period," the spokesperson said. "Nothing has been rushed, and multiple rounds of discussions between divisions and HHS occurred before the announcement. Every step taken has been deliberate, collaborative, and consistent with federal personnel policy and civil service protections."