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NY sues to stop Trump administration from ‘dismantling’ public health agencies
By
Caroline Lewis
Published May 5, 2025
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By
Caroline Lewis
Published May 5, 2025
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New York Attorney General Letitia James and the attorneys general of 19 other states sued the Trump administration Monday to stop it from abruptly shrinking and restructuring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, moves James said are “putting countless lives at risk.”
Federal cutbacks are already straining New York’s public health infrastructure, including the Wadsworth Center, a state-run infectious disease lab, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island.
The complaint argues that “dismantling” Health and Human Services is unconstitutional, and violates the Congressional mandates that established and funded its agencies and programs. The states are asking the court to block the administration from implementing a March 27 directive ordering mass layoffs and a departmental restructuring.
“This administration is not streamlining the federal government,” James said in a statement on the lawsuit. “They are sabotaging it and all of us.”
Health and Human Services said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The department announced last month it was downsizing from about 82,000 to 62,000 employees. Some 10,000 employees were abruptly fired, while others have been offered buyouts. The department is also collapsing its 28 distinct agencies into 15.
“We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the announcement of the restructuring. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
But last month’s layoffs resulted in deep cuts to department divisions that work on chronic health conditions such as HIV, substance use and mental health. These cuts mean there’s no one left to administer certain state grants and programs, resulting in a loss of funding to New York and other states, according to the lawsuit.
Federal staffing cuts have also already forced some infectious disease labs run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to close or significantly reduce their testing capacity, according to CBS. New York’s Wadsworth Center is now the only lab in the country that can test for certain diseases, according to Monday’s lawsuit.
“Wadsworth Center is responding to the urgent demand as it can,” the complaint states. “However, it was not built to replace the CDC and it simply could never fill that hole.”
The Trump administration has also gutted minority health offices dedicated to improving the health of certain disadvantaged groups, according to CNN. For New York City, those offices are “particularly important, considering the racial, ethnic, language and every kind of diversity of the people we take care of,” Dr. Michelle Morse, the city’s acting health commissioner, said during a forum last week on the impact of federal cuts on local health departments.
Morse said she’s also concerned about the potential impact of federal changes on city funding, staffing, infectious disease surveillance and HIV prevention, among other issues.
New York and other states have already had some success blocking federal public health cuts in court, at least temporarily.
The Trump administration’s effort to cancel more than $11 billion in public health funding earlier this year included $360 million in grants for New York state, and $100,000 of that went to the New York City health department, according to Morse. Those cuts were put on pause by a federal judge in response to a separate lawsuit filed by New York and other states.
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health care
new york state
Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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