Gov. Josh Shapiro, N.J. AG Matt Platkin and 21 other states sue Trump administration over $11 billion in canceled pandemic-era contracts
In Pennsylvania, Shapiro estimates the state will lose nearly $500 million in federal grant funding to expand and improve public health infrastructures.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin joined Democratic officials in 21 other states and Washington, D.C., to challenge President Donald Trump’s administration for its latest federal funding cut to $11 billion in pandemic-era programs.
The Democratic leaders allege that the federal government is breaking its contract with states by canceling federal grant programs to support public health that were already approved by Congress.
In Pennsylvania, Shapiro estimates the state will lose nearly $500 million in federal grant funding initially used to track and trace COVID-19 but was expanded to include other infectious diseases, as well as other major expansions to the state’s public health infrastructure. In New Jersey, the state will lose $350 million in federal funds that support 94 local health departments across the state, according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.
Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and the District of Columbia — as well as Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear who both lead states with Republican AGs — are asking for an emergency restraining order on the federal cuts to the public health grant programs that they argue “are causing and will continue to cause significant and irreparable harm” to the states, according to the lawsuit.
“The federal government broke its half billion-dollar contract with the Commonwealth and as a result of this unlawful action, is undermining our ability to protect the health of Pennsylvania’s children and families,” Shapiro said in a statement announcing he would join the multistate suit.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told states last week that it was terminating contracts for remaining federal funds related to COVID-19 pandemic recovery under the explanation that the federal contracts could be eliminated “for cause.”
“These grants and cooperative agreements were issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic,” officials wrote in the terminations, according to an exhibit filed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health as part of the suit. “Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purposes has run out.”
Now, Pennsylvania will no longer be able to support programs such as its statewide vaccine tracking system that has records of vaccinations of 16 million people, the jobs of 150 state employees and contractors, infectious disease tracking, additional services needed by people with severe mental health conditions, among other public health infrastructure expansions.
An executive deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Kristen Rodack, submitted a declaration to the court as part of the lawsuit Tuesday detailing the detrimental impact losing these federal funds will have on Pennsylvania’s public health.
Rodack also noted that while many of these programs began for COVID-19 response, they had been expanded to support mitigation efforts for other infections diseases, such as measles, ongoing threats of bird flu, and more.
“Any notion that this funding is used only for response to COVID-19 is inaccurate,” Rodack said in her declaration.
Shapiro, who frequently sued the Trump administration when he was the state’s attorney general, can also sue in his capacity as governor.
Pennsylvania’s new Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, has said previously he is unlikely to ever sue the Trump administration, preferring to focus on the core public safety mission of the office. Plus, Republican attorneys general are traditionally not allowed to join partisan lawsuits such as this one, and vice versa.
“As the Attorney General has stated before, we will not micromanage the federal government, and will not have news-making commentary in response to happenings in D.C.,” said Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for Sunday, in a statement.