By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A group of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to gut the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by firing 10,000 of its employees and shuttering entire agencies within the department.
Attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island, said the job cuts and agency consolidations U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced in late March unconstitutionally stripped the department of the resources necessary to do its job.
The layoffs, in addition to earlier buyout offers and firings of probationary employees, reduced the number of full-time HHS employees to 62,000 from 82,000 and left key offices unable to perform statutory functions, the lawsuit said.
After the announcement, employees at agencies under HHS including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were abruptly put on administrative leave on April 1 and told they would be formally terminated on June 2.
The states argue that the intended effect of the restructuring is to dismantle key HHS programs and that the layoffs have led to infectious disease labs being closed, experiments being abandoned and partnerships being suspended.
They argue Kennedy lacked the authority to launch the widespread layoffs and restructuring and that the administration violated the U.S. Constitution by usurping Congress’ authority to create and fund agencies’ operations.
HHS declined to comment. It has said the restructuring was necessary to streamline its functions and that the layoffs would save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Franklin Paul and Jan Harvey)
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