A coalition of 20 state attorneys general is suing the Trump administration over what it calls the “dismantling” of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in through mass layoffs and the freezing of core functions. Via The Hill:
Filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, the attorneys general argue that the Trump administration is supporting HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of “evisceration of the Department.”
They pointed to the layoffs throughout HHS that have effectively eliminated entire offices including Head Start and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. HHS announced plans of laying off 10,000 employees on March 27.
“The World Trade Center Health Program had no doctors to certify new illnesses for coverage,” they noted in their suit.
[…] “This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said 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.”
