Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. for abruptly terminating nearly $11 billion in public grant funding.
Key Points:
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- Michigan was set to receive $379.3 million in grant funding awarded and owed to the State of Michigan.
- Michigan grants terminated include mental health and substance abuse grants and grants meant to support infectious disease control and vaccinations for children and vulnerable adults.
- According to a press release, the termination of these federal funds has caused panic among Michigan Department of Health and Human Services employees, partners, subgrantees, and service recipients.
- In their lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, the coalition of attorneys general assert that the mass terminations violate federal law because the end of the pandemic is not a “for cause” basis for ending the grants, especially since none of the appropriated funds are tied to the end of the pandemic which occurred more than a year ago.
- With this lawsuit, Attorney General Nessel and the coalition are seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate Secretary Kennedy’s and HHS’s mass grant terminations in the litigating states, arguing that the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
- The states are additionally asking the court to prevent HHS from maintaining or reinstating the terminations and any agency actions implementing them.
Coalition:
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- Joining Attorney General Nessel in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the Governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
