Nashville joins three local governments in suing federal government over public health cuts
Metro Public Health staff member Molly Shine preps a vaccine while sisters Maya and Sara Gana wait at a Nashville mobile vaccine clinic in 2021. (Photo: John Partipilo/John Partipilo)
The city of Nashville has sued the federal government over the abrupt halt of federal public health grants to vaccinate children, test for infectious disease, operate community clinics and conduct outreach to unhoused individuals.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a Washington, D.C. federal court, alleges the Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) illegally terminated $11.4 billion in federal public health funding across the nation last month. The lawsuit claims the action usurped the authority of Congress, which appropriated the funding during the COVID era for current and future pandemic preparedness.
The grants to Nashville and other local governments were terminated 'for cause,' a term that applies to wrongdoing on the recipients' part. The federal government, however, said the 'end of the [COVID] pandemic constituted its cause.' Being terminated from a federal grant for cause can impact the ability to get new grants.
'The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,' a March HHS statement about the funding cuts quoted in the lawsuit said. 'HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Health Again.'
It could delay investigation and follow up to vaccine preventable diseases, such as Hep A (Hepatitis A) and B, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), among many others, unless we find other sources of funding which could lead to increased instances and more acute cases of vaccine preventable diseases.
– Dr. Sammi Areola, Metro Nashville Pubic Health
An HHS spokesperson on Friday declined to comment further on the litigation.
Nashville joined Harris County, Texas, Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Missouri and the American Federation of County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO in filing the suit, which also names HHS chief Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and CDC acting director Susan Monarez. The CDC is overseen by HHS.
The lawsuit said the funding to public health departments reflected Congress' intent to address the 'longer term challenges it knew the country would face in Covid-19's wake, including gaps in the public health system and the need for investment in critical public health infrastructure.'
Metro Nashville Public Health Director Sanmi Areola said Friday he was 'concerned about the impacts of the funding losses on the health of our residents.'
Among the Nashville health services impacted are efforts to ensure children are up-to-date on vaccines, oversight of daycare immunization compliance, providing back-to-school physicals and delays in receiving immunization records, he said.
Areola said the cuts could lead to more acute cases of vaccine-preventable diseases.
'It could delay investigation and follow up to vaccine preventable diseases, such as Hep A (Hepatitis A) and B, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), among many others, unless we find other sources of funding which could lead to increased instances and more acute cases of vaccine preventable diseases,' Dr. Areola said via email.
Dr. Areola said health officials are working to minimize impacts on services.
Nashville received word March 25 that it had lost the funding effective the prior day, March 24.
The public health department has had to cut 16 full time staff in a division that conducted health and resource barrier screenings. The public health department can also no longer move forward with six already-advertised positions to do outreach to homeless individuals, the lawsuit said.
Plans to purchase a mobile medical unit have been shelved, too.
The lawsuit is seeking the restoration of funding and a declaration that the actions by the Trump administration were unlawful. The federal government has not yet filed a formal legal response to the lawsuit, and no court dates have yet been set.
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