CNN
–
A federal judge ruled that the recent major layoffs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were likely to be illegal and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to scale back and restructure the country’s health workforce.
US District Judge Melissa Dubose granted the interim injunction sought by the coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia attorney generals and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May.
Dubose said the state has shown “irreparable harm” from the cuts and is likely to win the allegation that “HHS’ actions are arbitrary and whimsical and against the law.”
“An administrative agency has no authority to order, organize or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agency created by Congress,” Dubose wrote in a 58-page order taken over Tuesday to the U.S. District Court in Providence, Rhode Island.
Her orders block the Trump administration from issuing a final or further shooting of the layoffs announced in March. HHS has been instructed to submit a status report by July 11th.
This ruling applies to employees who have terminated in four departments of HHS. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US. Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Center. Offices within the Administration will start under management for children, families and employees in the local office working on Head Start issues. Secretary Assistant Office for Planning and Evaluation.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated more than 10,000 employees in late March and merged 28 agencies into 15. Since then, agencies, including the CDC, have repeatedly cancelled layoffs affecting hundreds of employees, including branches monitoring HIV, hepatitis and other illnesses.
The Attorney General argued that the massive restructuring was arbitrary and out of the scope of the agency’s authority. The lawsuit says the lawsuit has destroyed key programs and promoted costs that would be burdened by the state.
“The intended effect was… the abolishment of wholesale of many HHS programs that are essential to public health and safety,” the lawsuit allegedly.
The reductions are part of the federal “Again American Health” directive to streamline expensive agencies and reduce redundancy. Kennedy told the Senator on May 14 that there was “so much confusion and confusion” in HHS.
However, the restructuring eliminated key teams regulating food safety and drugs, supporting a wide range of programs on tobacco, HIV prevention, and maternal and infant health. Kennedy has since said that 20% of those fired for mistakes could be revived.
The states that took part in the lawsuit include a Democratic governor, many of the same states, and a few other states, also appealed to the Trump administration for more than $11 billion in public health funding. In that case, a provisional injunction was granted in mid-May.
