NY leads lawsuit over RFK's HHS cuts

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday filed suit to block the April cuts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She argued the cuts cripple testing, care, and services that Congress funds by law.

James led 20 other states and the District of Columbia in suing over the March 27 “Make America Healthy Again” plan from HHS. The attorneys general said that efficiency alone can't justify tens of thousands of layoffs and want a court order that restores both staff and programs before more damage spreads. They also want a declaration that the cuts violate the Constitution and federal law.

The suit set out five main legal claims. First, that those cuts violate the Appropriations Clause by refusing to spend money Congress set aside. Next, that HHS acted “ultra vires,” or beyond its power, by dismantling programs required by law, including X-rays for coal miners and surveys on drug use. It also argued that the cuts contradict the Administrative Procedure Act by being both unlawful and arbitrary—contradicting statutory duties without a reasoned justification. Last, the lawsuit articulates a constitutional separation of powers violation, with the executive stealing power from the legislative branches.

Over roughly 100 pages, the complaint explained that under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS flouted the Constitution’s spending rules and broke federal law that authorized everything from disease labs to poverty guidelines. It asks the court to reinstate laid-off employees, continue funding labs and programs, put an immediate hold on more layoffs and freezes, and prevent the nation’s public health infrastructure from breaking down.

According to James, the HHS plan fired 20,000, or 25%, of HHS workers, smushed 28 agencies together into 15, closed five out of 10 regional offices, and wiped out critical aid to needy people without any legal authority. But HHS promised $1.8 billion in annual savings, saying the shake-up would “make our agency more efficient and more effective.”

The “Make America Healthy Again” plan was supposed to keep core services like Medicare, Medicaid, drug reviews, and food inspections in place. It touted a merged Office of Planning and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and a new Assistant Secretary for Enforcement to oversee appeals and curb waste. The plan also included a new Administration for a Healthy America merging five agencies—the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health—to fight fraud and boost efficiency.

But James countered that these hollow gains come at the cost of lifesaving work, now decimated by “dangerous, cruel, and illegal” cuts. The lawsuit cites a leaked internal HHS “2026 Discretionary Budget Passback” document from April 10 showing plans to zero out funding for 41 programs—including HIV prevention, tobacco control, lead tracking, and environmental health grants—next year.

Per the lawsuit, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all but two labs testing for measles, hepatitis, gonorrhea, and unusual infectious diseases like Ebola are now on pause. New York’s Wadsworth Center picked up much of that slack, running advanced tests for Chagas disease and leptospirosis, which no other state lab can do.

But Wadsworth lacks the funding and staffing levels necessary for a sustained national response. Plus, a Food and Drug Administration lab exercise to test milk for bird flu was suspended after human food safety staff got laid off.

Meanwhile, the World Trade Center Health Program canceled new cancer certifications. That's because HHS placed doctors on leave and froze grants for more than 137,000 survivors and responders, according to James.

"These men and women who survived one of the most horrific attacks on this country are now worried that their insurance is going to go away, that their life-saving care for cancer or other respiratory illnesses or psychiatric care is going to go away," said Gary Smiley, a 9/11 responder on the program’s advisory steering committee. "It's causing irreparable damage. It has already caused irreparable damage."

Head Start centers across New York report frozen grants, staffing gaps, empty regional offices of the Administration for Children and Families, and a long line of unanswered calls, the lawsuit claimed. At SAMHSA, half the staff are gone, disrupting the 988 suicide prevention hotline and ending the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that tracks tobacco, alcohol, and opioid trends.

Dozens of state-administered grants wait in limbo, the lawsuit said. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program aid came late because HHS had to rehire a staffer to distribute those funds to poor households. It also dismantled the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy that runs the National Vaccine Program and an “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative.

And HHS laid off the team at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation that updates the federal poverty guidelines used by Medicaid, SNAP, and school meal programs. That means families already facing closed classrooms could lose free meals, while working parents face the tough choice between a paycheck or child care.

Take a look at the lawsuit below: