19 states sue Trump administration over mass layoffs at HHS

The laying off of 10,000 Health and Human Services Department employees was unlawful and should be reversed, 19 states bringing a lawsuit against the Trump administration said in court filings Monday, adding the agency had “no constitutional or statutory authority” to carry out the staffing cuts. 

The states have borne the direct impact of the reductions due to office closures and the loss of expertise resulting from the reductions in force, the Democratic state attorneys general said in seeking to establish their standing in the case. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversaw the RIFs in April and announced it would shed another 10,000 employees through attrition, leading to a 25% overall reduction in HHS’ workforce. 

The cuts had sweeping impacts and touched employees working on infectious diseases, cancer research, the opioid epidemic and significantly more. HHS went from 28 offices down to 15 and from 10 regional offices to five. 

HHS has “no authority to conduct a reorganization, nor can they use layoffs to diminish agency capacity below statutory requirements,” the states said in their complaint to the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, where it was assigned to Judge Melissa DuBose, a President Biden appointee. 

The states argued that HHS was breaking federal law by contravening Congress’ directives on spending money and statutory programs. They added that Kennedy and the Trump administration’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, and highlighted the secretary’s admission that at least 20% of the layoffs occurred by mistake. 

“Incapacitating one of the most sophisticated departments in the federal government implicates hundreds of statutes, regulations, and programs,” the states said. “But Secretary Kennedy refused to undertake this restructuring legally or carefully.”

The states noted they were impacted by the cuts in a number of ways, including the closure of laboratories, loss of access to grants, cessation of equipment certification programs, cancellation of partnerships focused on workplace safety and other issues and the termination of surveillance programs on which the states rely. They referenced many notices their agencies have received that certain programs would no longer function. In one case, states received a notice that a disease intervention training center initiative was “no longer able to provide programmatic technical assistance or project monitoring as required by law.”

The very act of cutting staff has prevented key programs from functioning, the states alleged. 

“Dismantling HHS by terminating the people necessary for it to meet its own mandates, and paralyzing it by means of a confusing reorganization, is an unlawful effort to undercut the will of Congress who ordered the agencies and programs to run,” the states said. 

Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, one of the leaders on the lawsuit, said the layoffs were both illegal and “a moral failing.” 

“More Americans will suffer from illness, injury, and death without these commonsense programs,” Brown said. “A robust public health system that serves communities with the most barriers to appropriate medical care is vital.”

The states asked the judge to invalidate Kennedy’s directive ordering the layoffs and for all impacted employees to be reinstated. A timeline for the case has not yet been established.  

More RIFs at HHS, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, took effect last week, as first reported by CBS News.