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 reorganizing several of its agencies and substantially cutting their workforce.
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.
The 19 states that sued, along with the District of Columbia, challenged HHS’s implementation of its restructuring plan, which also called for collapsing 28 divisions into 15 and closing half of its 10 regional offices.
While the states argued the entire plan was unlawful, they focused on having DuBose block firings and restructurings at four agencies within HHS, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Head Start.
DuBose, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, agreed to do so, saying the states had established a likelihood of proving HHS’ action was arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law.
“The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” she wrote.
She ordered HHS to halt mass job cuts and restructurings at the four agencies, which also included the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
“Today’s order guarantees these programs and services will remain accessible and halts the administration’s attempt to sabotage our nation’s health care system,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling came a day before the terminations of the employees were set to become final. Some of the 10,000 employees had already been reinstated following an outcry over the potential for increased risks to public health.
The job cuts were part of the effort by Republican President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-spearheaded Department of Government Efficiency initiative to shrink the federal government and slash spending.
Democratic state attorneys general in a lawsuit filed in May 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 lab closures, research being abandoned and partnerships suspended.
The states said the cuts left CDC unable to meet statutory mandates to investigate diseases due to lab closures and put Head Start centers that support early childhood programs at risk of closing.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia , Bill Berkrot and Marguerita Choy)
