logo
Trump and HHS claw back $80 million in federal public health funding from New Hampshire

Trump and HHS claw back $80 million in federal public health funding from New Hampshire

Yahoo28-03-2025

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (left) speaks with leaders of community resource centers in New Hampshire about the effects of the federal government's funding cuts. At right is Michelle Lennon, president and CEO of Archways. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin)
The federal government, under President Donald Trump, announced Tuesday it was revoking $11.4 billion of unspent, leftover, post-pandemic COVID-19 relief funding from state and local governments, $80 million of which is coming from New Hampshire.
'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,' Andrew Nixon, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' director of communications, said in a statement. 'HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.'
Gov. Kelly Ayotte told WMUR and others Wednesday that she's asked the Trump administration to reconsider the decision but was told it is irreversible. State officials believed they would have until the end of 2026 to spend the funding.
'As I understand it, at the federal level, they're just saying these were pandemic funds and they were only meant to be temporary,' Ayotte, a Republican, said. 'And the pandemic's concluded and we're gonna claw them back.'
This worsens what was already an extremely difficult budget year for New Hampshire. The state has dealt with years of lagging business tax revenues, is set to be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money to victims of a yearslong child abuse scandal in its juvenile detention centers, and was already running out of pandemic-era federal funding. Amid these challenges, Ayotte unveiled her $16 billion two-year budget proposal in February. Since then, legislators have been proposing further cuts to that proposal after the House Ways and Means Committee decided her revenue projections were too optimistic by hundreds of millions of dollars.
This week's cut from the federal government creates a new hole in the state budget that lawmakers will have to figure out how to address. Ayotte said she disagrees with the federal government's decision to revoke this funding so abruptly.
'Of course I think it is much easier for states if resources have been appropriated for a period that at least we fulfill that period,' Ayotte said.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan met with leaders of community organizations from across the state in Tilton at Archways Community Resource Center to discuss how this will affect their programming, which also relies on the funding that was cut.
'This is about the administration taking away critical things from the American people who need them to give more tax cuts for billionaires who are already billionaires,' Hassan, a Democrat, said.
Archways, as well as several other organizations at the event Friday, were using the federal funding that was revoked to provide a number of services, including those aimed at treating substance use disorder as well as helping people get the Medicaid and SNAP benefits they qualify for.
'These are not just nice things you do for the community,' Michelle Lennon, president and CEO of Archways, said. 'There's evidence that it saves money and it saves lives.'
Lennon said a lot of people don't realize how difficult it is for those who need welfare services to obtain those services. Her organization relies heavily on federal funding to help people receive their services.
'The assumption is that the resources are readily available, and I can tell you, 99% of the time, they are not,' Lennon said. 'The assumption is that, 'Oh, you can go to town welfare when you're in trouble and you're good.' And it doesn't work that way. It is so complicated. Rejections come fast and furious, sometimes to the point where we have to engage with legal aid to get people the help they are entitled to as American citizens.'
Among the specific programs being cut is the Health Disparities Grant, which funds employees at Archways who help impoverished people navigate the state's health care system.
'We have to train our workers in terms of navigating that (system),' Mark Watman, vice president and COO of Archways, said. 'These are people who are trained, and it's still difficult. To have individuals out there trying to navigate this on their own, this is going to be disastrous.'
Watman said the programs that have been supported by this funding 'help families survive.'
'The lack of these resources is going to have very practical implications on the health and survivability of New Hampshire families,' he said.
Several leaders of community organizations present Friday said these cuts will devastate their operations at the same time that need in their communities is rising.
'Now that they've done this, it's like, 'Oh my god, they can do anything to just wreck us overnight,'' Joelyn Drennan, assistant vice president of impact at Granite United Way, said. 'And that is super concerning to me, because we are seeing the needs rise, and we're having such a hard time keeping up with the capacity now.'
'It is one thing to plan for budget cuts in future budgets,' Hassan said. 'We go through that at the state level, at the local level, at the federal level all the time. … This is different. This is the administration cutting already committed funds, laying off people in the middle of a budget, doing things that really are going to harm the people of this state and make our communities less able, less resilient to deal with the challenges that they're facing.'
Hassan said she's fighting back by spotlighting the importance of the services being cut in New Hampshire, and she's trying to persuade her Republican colleagues to help the Democrats oppose these actions. She pointed out that they'd need only four Republicans in the Senate and a few more in the House to overcome the GOP majority. She wouldn't say whether the onus is on Ayotte as a Republican to appeal to the Trump administration to stop this funding cut.
'This clawback of money, this taking away of money that was already promised to New Hampshire and that New Hampshire has already planned to use, will really harm families, people in mental health crisis, people with chronic illness, young children whose disabilities are just being identified and need that bit of extra help so that they won't need special education later on,' she said. 'Those are all services at risk.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform
Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

Hamilton Spectator

time35 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) — Calley Means has built a following by railing against the U.S. health system, often hammering on alleged financial conflicts within the medical establishment. Means, a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was hired as a White House adviser in March. He has used that position to accuse physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists of financial interests that bias their work. Means, however, has his own stake in the sprawling health system. He's the co-founder of an online platform that offers dietary supplements, herbal remedies, exercise equipment, light therapy lamps and other wellness products. The Associated Press found that Means' heated rhetoric against the medical mainstream dovetails with the interests of his company TrueMed, which features vendors who are prominent supporters of Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. Because of his status as a temporary government employee, Means is exempt from publicly disclosing his financial details. The AP reviewed more than two dozen interviews, speeches, articles and podcast appearances by Means both before and after he joined the government. Here are some takeaways from the AP's reporting : Attacking prescription drugs, promoting wellness alternatives Means' company, Truemed, helps users take tax-free money out of their health savings accounts, or HSAs, to spend on things that wouldn't normally qualify as medical expenses, such as meal delivery services and homeopathic products — remedies based on a centuries-old, debunked theory of medicine. As a top messenger for the administration, Means has been promoting a new government report that calls for scaling back prescription drugs for depression, weight loss and other conditions. By criticizing the use of drugs and other rigorously tested products, health experts say Means is furthering the interests of his company, which offers alternatives to traditional medicine. 'It reeks of hypocrisy,' said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a health researcher at Yale University. 'In effect, he is representing another industry that is touting nonregulated products and using his platform within the government to financially benefit himself.' In a written statement, Means said his government work has not dealt with matters affecting Truemed and has focused on issues like reforming nutrition programs and pressuring companies to phase out food dyes. 'Pursuing these large-scale MAHA goals to make America healthy has been the sole focus in my government work,' Means said. Undisclosed interests The full extent of Means' potential financial conflicts are unclear because of his status as a special government employee . Unlike presidential appointees and other senior officials, special government employees do not have to leave companies or sell investments that could be impacted by their work. Also, their financial disclosure forms are shielded from public release. 'It's a big problem,' says Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. 'I think it's a loophole.' Plugging products and business associates While promoting the administration's accomplishments, Means has not shied away from plugging his own brand or those of his business partners. When asked to offer health advice to listeners of a sports podcast, Outkick The Show, in April, Means suggested they read his book 'Good Energy,' which he co-authored with his sister, Dr. Casey Means. He also recommended blood tests sold by Function Health, which provides subscription-based testing for $500 annually. The company was cofounded by Dr. Mark Hyman, a friend of Kennedy and an investor in Truemed, which also offers Hyman's supplements through its platform. Like dietary supplements, the tests marketed by Function Health are not clinically approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 'It ends up favoring these products and services that rest on flimsy grounds, at the expense of products that have actually survived a rigorous FDA approval process,' said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who is now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Steering medical dollars into health savings accounts Means says he has not worked on issues impacting HSAs since joining the federal government. Federal ethics laws forbid government employees from taking part in decisions that could impact their financial situation. But before joining government, Means said the mission of his company 'is to steer medical dollars into flexible spending.' 'I want to get that $4.5 trillion of Medicare, Medicaid, everything into a flexible account,' he told fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels, on her podcast last year. Truemed collects fees when users and partnering companies use its platform. Means also founded a lobbying group, made up of MAHA entrepreneurs and TrueMed vendors, that listed expanding HSAs as a goal on its website. Means said in a statement that the group focused only on broad topics like 'health care incentives and patient choice — but did not lobby for specific bills.' Benefits of HSAs questioned Expanding HSAs has been part of the Republican health platform for more than 20 years. The tax-free accounts were created in 2003 to encourage Americans in high-deductible plans to be judicious with their health dollars. But HSAs have not brought down spending, economists say. They are disproportionately used by the wealthiest Americans, who have more income to fund them and bigger incentives to lower their tax rate. Americans who earn more than $1 million annually are the group most likely to make regular HSA contributions, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most Americans with HSAs have balances less than $500. HSA expansions in Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' are projected to cost the federal government $180 billion over the next 10 years. 'These are really just tax breaks in the guise of health policy that overwhelmingly benefit people with high incomes,' said Gideon Lukens, a former White House budget official during the Obama and Trump administrations. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

LA protests far different from '92 Rodney King riots
LA protests far different from '92 Rodney King riots

Yahoo

time37 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

LA protests far different from '92 Rodney King riots

The images of cars set ablaze, protesters tossing rocks at police and officers firing nonlethal rounds and tear gas at protesters hearkens back to the last time a president sent the National Guard to respond to violence on Los Angeles streets. But the unrest during several days of protests over immigration enforcement is far different in scale from the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King. President George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to call in the National Guard after requests from Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson. After the current protests began Friday over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines despite strident opposition from Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump cited a legal provision to mobilize federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday saying Trump had overstepped his authority. Outrage over the verdicts on April 29, 1992 led to nearly a week of widespread violence that was one of the deadliest riots in American history. Hundreds of businesses were looted. Entire blocks of homes and stores were torched. More than 60 people died in shootings and other violence, mostly in South Los Angeles, an area with a heavily Black population at the time. Unlike the 1992 riots, protests have mainly been peaceful and been confined to a roughly five-block stretch of downtown LA, a tiny patch in the sprawling city of nearly 4 million people. No one has died. There's been vandalism and some cars set on fire but no homes or buildings have burned. At least 50 people have been arrested for everything from failing to follow orders to leave to looting, assault on a police officer and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Several officers have had minor injuries and protesters and some journalists have been struck by some of the more than 600 rubber bullets and other 'less-lethal' munitions fired by police. The 1992 uprising took many by surprise, including the Los Angeles Police Department, but the King verdict was a catalyst for racial tensions that had been building in the city for years. In addition to frustration with their treatment by police, some directed their anger at Korean merchants who owned many of the local stores. Black residents felt the owners treated them more like shoplifters than shoppers. As looting and fires spread toward Koreatown, some merchants protected their stores with shotguns and rifles.

The Trump admin is struggling to hire staff for this key official
The Trump admin is struggling to hire staff for this key official

Yahoo

time38 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

The Trump admin is struggling to hire staff for this key official

The Trump administration is reportedly having trouble hiring aides and top advisors to work for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to NBC News. The Republican White House has been searching for a new chief of staff and several other senior advisors for Hegseth following 'a series of missteps that have shaken confidence in his leadership,' NBC News reported. Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have been involved in the search for staff members. But so far, three people have already turned down potential jobs, according to the report. To further complicate matters, the White House has also rejected some individuals that Hegseth wants to hire, while Hegseth has rejected some of the White House's candidates, according to NBC News. Last April, members of Hegseth's staff were either put on leave or had left their positions at the Pentagon. Hegseth placed two senior aides on leave in April amid an investigation into a leak of sensitive information from the Pentagon, according to USA Today. It was also revealed in April that Hegseth's Chief of Staff, Joe Kasper, would leave his position, according to Politico. John Ullyot, a former spokesperson for the Pentagon under Hegseth, wrote in an April Politico op-ed that his former boss is leading a department that is in disarray. 'It's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,' Ullyot wrote. 'From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership." The New York Times also reported in April that Hegseth created a group chat on Signal with his wife and brother. There, he shared details of a military strike in March against Yemen's Houthi militants, according to the Times. It was previously reported that the details of the strike were shared in a separate Signal chat group featuring Hegseth, other top Trump officials and the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The stories of the Signal chats were referred to as 'SignalGate.' The Pentagon's watchdog is investigating whether any of Hegseth's aides were asked to delete messages from Signal that may have shared sensitive military information with the editor-in-chief, according to The Associated Press. U.S. House committee demands Harvard send them hiring policies for review ICE detains most-followed TikTok star amid Trump immigration crackdown Mass. doctor ousted by RFK Jr. as part of purge to CDC vaccine advisory committee Williams College stops accepting federal grants, opposing new policy What Gov. Newsom said after an Ala. senator called LA 'a third world country' Read the original article on MassLive.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store