Dive Brief:
- Twenty Democratic state attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Monday over what they say is an “unconstitutional and illegal dismantling” of the HHS.
- The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, seeks to undo HHS’ restructuring, in which approximately 10,000 federal employees lost their jobs and critical health programs were gutted, including those monitoring maternal and newborn health, addressing smoking cessation and testing for the bird flu virus.
- The administration’s actions have already had “severe, complicated, and potentially irreversible” consequences, plaintiffs said in the complaint. The attorneys general asked the court to declare the reduction in force unlawful and restore health programs.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with finding cost savings in the federal government.
DOGE, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, took aim at HHS in late March. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced HHS would purge its workforce from 85,000 to 62,000 full time employees and slash its divisions from 28 to 15. Layoffs began on April 1, and the process — which diverged sharply from how reductions in force are normally carried out — was quickly dogged by questions of legality.
Now, the state attorneys general are arguing the layoffs are unconstitutional in asking a judge to order HHS to restore staff.
“Congress created HHS and has invested enormous sums into it every year without interruption, and the congressional mandates remain in place today,” the plaintiffs said. “Much of that investment was lost in a day through the massive firings of HHS’s leaders and staff. More will be lost if nothing is done.”
The attorneys general argue that the layoffs have also hindered HHS’ ability to perform critical health programs.
“This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the attorney generals bringing the suit, in a statement. “When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant patients, and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe or children thrive, you are not making America healthy — you are putting countless lives at risk.”
For example, the layoffs hit half of the entire workforce at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, upending the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline team and forcing the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to grind to a halt, according to the lawsuit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire maternal health team was also fired, according to the complaint, leading to a collapse of nationwide efforts to monitor maternal mortality. The CDC was also forced to reduce federal fertility tracking programs, even after Trump declared himself to be the “fertilization president.”
The attorneys general argue the Trump administration intended to sow chaos and decimate the agency, citing a leaked budget document from April that outlined further planned cuts to the agency. The final budget proposal, released Friday, suggests cutting HHS’ discretionary budget for next year by 26%. Much of the cuts are targeted at the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.
Kennedy is scheduled to appear at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee hearing on May 14. Although the hearing is focused on the HHS’ budget for 2026, senators are likely to question him about the restructuring. Kennedy dodged a previous request to testify before the Senate HELP committee in April.
James is joined on the suit by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.