Judge in Rhode Island to halt Trump health funding cuts as lawsuit continues
(WJAR) — A federal judge in Rhode Island said during a hearing Thursday afternoon that she will grant a temporary restraining order that puts a halt to the Trump administration pulling $11 billion in health funding to states across the country.
States suing the federal government sought the restraining order as their lawsuit filed Tuesday continues.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is leading the lawsuit with 23 other states to sue the Trump administration over health money that was slashed last week.
The funding pulled by the feds including $31 million from Rhode Island and about $100 million from Massachusetts.
The states’ lawsuit challenging the cuts was filed in Rhode Island.
U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy said during the hearing the states’ “likelihood of success on the merits is extremely strong.”
McElroy also said the damage to the states is “clearly irreparable” if the funding is on hold while the case plays out.
The money was meant for programs born out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the federal Health and Human Services Department, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wrote in a statement last week that "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic."
“It’s money that’s critical to public health,” Neronha countered at a press conference Tuesday.
Neronha argues the money is needed to prepare for a potential future pandemic, that the funding was allocated by Congress and can't be pulled by the president.
“That’s the Congress’ job, not the secretary’s. They’re there to enforce the law and to spend the money as the Congress appropriated. The president thinks all that power is his. It’s not. If you wanted to have all that authority, he should have become a leader in a different country, not one that’s a democracy,” Neronha said. “The president and the secretary are dead wrong on this legally and as a matter of policy and we’re going to fight to preserve these funds for Rhode Islanders.”
The Rhode Island Department of Health said the money is earmarked for vaccination programs, lab work, and addressing equity issues.
Health Director Dr. Jerome Larkin said Tuesday of losing the money, “Which is taking our tax money and taking it away from Rhode Island to, to do god only know what with it, build more Teslas, buy more Teslas, who knows.”
Neronha is also one of the leaders in another lawsuit, filed in January with more than 20 other states, challenging Trump’s federal funding freeze announced shortly after he became president.
A different federal judge in Rhode Island, John McConnell, first issued a temporary restraining order then a preliminary injunction halting the freeze as that case continues.
