Federal health department cuts state COVID funding

The Trump administration has canceled COVID funding for state and local health departments, which is also being used to support public health infrastructure. Legal action has put the cuts on hold for now.

In late March, state health departments were notified that the federal Department of Health and Human Services was rescinding $11.4 billion in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for response to the COVID pandemic. Grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to address substance use, drug overdoses, and mental health – all of which worsened during the pandemic – were also canceled.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and counterparts from 22 other states filed a lawsuit on April 1 seeking to reverse the funding cuts.

“Congress explicitly authorized funding for the grants at issue to help keep our country healthy and protect us from future pandemics,” Bonta said in a statement. “HHS and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., cannot unilaterally do away with that critical federal funding.”

The legal complaint reads in part, “If the funding is not restored, key public health programs and initiatives that address ongoing and emerging public health needs ... will have to be dissolved or disbanded.”

On April 4, federal Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island, who was appointed during President Donald Trump’s first term, granted a temporary restraining order to block cancellation of the funds.

Funds support health infrastructure
Although some of the rescinded grants were scheduled to run through 2027, recipients received notices stating, “No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” DHHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

Although the federal COVID public health emergency ended in May 2023, hundreds of people still die of COVID every week.

Congress originally allocated the funding for pandemic preparedness, and much of it was used for COVID testing and vaccination, community health workers, and efforts to reduce COVID health disparities. But legislators allowed health departments to use some of the money to strengthen public health infrastructure, for example, improving disease surveillance and expanding laboratory capacity.

California alone stands to lose nearly $1 billion in funding, according to Bonta.

California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Erica Pan confirmed that the state had received notice that the CDC intends to immediately end state and local funding and said that the department is “working to evaluate the impact of these actions.”

“All Californians deserve to live in healthy and thriving communities, which is the role of public health,” Pan said in a statement. The California DPH “remains committed to seeking the resources required to support the critical, lifesaving infrastructure needed to keep people healthy and protect them against infectious disease, vaccine-preventable diseases and health emergencies.”

Likewise, the San Francisco Department of Public Health “is currently assessing the impact of the cuts to federal public health funding,” the agency told the Bay Area Reporter in a statement. “Public health funding is critical for disease prevention, care, epidemiology, and research. SF DPH remains committed to protecting and promoting the health of all San Franciscans.”