By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to overhaul the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by substantially cutting its workforce and shuttering entire agencies within the department.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states who challenged a plan HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced in March to consolidate agencies and fire 10,000 of the department’s employees.
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 states alleged.
As part of the restructuring plan, HHS said it was also collapsing 28 divisions into 15 and closing half of its 10 regional offices.
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.
Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed on May 5 argued that the intended effect of the restructuring was to dismantle key HHS programs.
They argued Kennedy lacked the authority to launch the widespread layoffs and restructuring, which have led to infectious disease labs closures, research being abandoned and partnerships suspended.
The states also argued the administration violated the U.S. Constitution by usurping Congress’ authority to create and fund the agencies’ operations.
The job cuts and agency restructurings were carried out as part of the vast government cost-cutting initiative spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The states said the cuts left CDC unable to meet statutory mandates to investigate diseases due to lab closures, put Head Start centers that support early childhood programs at risk of closing, and had jeopardized work on mental health and addiction treatment.
Their lawsuit said FDA after the job cuts also missed a deadline to approve a new vaccine for COVID-19 and canceled a key test for the bird flu virus.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
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