Federal judge blocks mass layoffs and reorganization plans at HHS

Washington — A federal judge in Rhode Island has blocked the Department of Health and Human Services from implementing mass layoffs and overhauling some of its sub-agencies, finding there to be "no rational basis" for the Trump administration's reorganization plans that would have "devastating consequences" across the country if enacted.

The suit was brought by 19 Democratic attorneys general and Washington, D.C., in May, seeking to block an agency restructuring plan announced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March.

Their complaint warned of "severe, complicated, and potentially irreversible" consequences to public health services nationwide if the plan went forward, potentially "paralyzing" the agency "by means of a confusing reorganization."

"Critical public health services have been interrupted, databases taken offline, status of grants thrown into chaos, technical assistance services gone, and training and consultation services curtailed. These are not unsubstantiated fears," Judge Melissa DuBose wrote in her opinion granting the states' request for a preliminary injunction.

"HHS has failed to produce a shred of evidence that services to States and access to critical information would continue uninterrupted, that the harms are minimal or not irreparable, or that it is authorized to act absent Congressional action," she added.

The judge also ordered the parties to address whether and how the Supreme Court's recent ruling limiting universal injunctions should apply to her order.

The states had cited concerns with the restructuring at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA's tobacco products center, the Office of Head Start and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

"The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress," DuBose wrote.

As part of Kennedy's restructuring plan, he moved to lay off some 10,000 employees at the nation's health agencies and ordered remaining officials to draw up plans to reorganize their work. Several offices and teams are slated to move under the plans, many into a new agency Kennedy wants to create called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

Most of those employees remain off the job after getting their layoff notices in April but are still being paid, due to cases that sought to block their terminations.

"HHS is the backbone of our nation's public health and social safety net — from cancer screenings and maternal health to early childhood education and domestic violence prevention," said New York Attorney General James in a statement after the ruling.

In May, a federal court in California blocked the Trump administration's mass layoff attempts, including at HHS, though the Supreme Court is considering whether to lift a lower court's injunction and allow it to move forward with the administration's plans for reductions in force, or layoffs.

"The people who were subject to the reduction in force are on administrative leave, and they will remain on administrative leave until the injunction is lifted," Kennedy said at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week.

Multiple federal health officials said planning has been ongoing for the next steps of the reorganization and merger, even as Kennedy has cited the court rulings as a reason to dodge questions about the restructuring on Capitol Hill.

Officials from the Health Resources and Services Administration visited the CDC's campuses in Atlanta in recent weeks, they said, in a meeting of senior leaders between the two agencies.

Most remaining teams focused on chronic disease from the two agencies are supposed to start being transferred into the new AHA agency, Kennedy has said, if the injunction is lifted.

A few hundred layoffs have also been reversed in the weeks since the initial cuts, including those of scientists, researchers and health officials the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the FDA.

But officials have also been told that further layoffs might be demanded by the Trump administration from health agencies in order to "balance out" the jobs that were restored.

"At that point, we will make decisions. And, you know, in some cases, there have been gaps in our ability to perform our duties. I've brought people back," Kennedy said.