WASHINGTON — Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a coalition of 24 states in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for “abruptly and illegally terminating $11 billion in critical public health grants to the states.”
Brown says the grant terminations, which came with no warning or legally valid explanation, have “quickly caused chaos for state health agencies that rely on these critical funds for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as infectious disease management, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing public health infrastructure.”
Washington stands to lose more than $159 million from these cancellations by HHS, according to Brown’s office.
“We can’t make America healthy by spreading preventable diseases,” Brown said. “Aside from the illegality of these actions, the administration is also choosing to neglect the biggest public health challenges, including substance abuse and mental health crises, facing our communities.”
Brown’s office said that if the funding is not restored, important state public health programs and initiatives will have to be dissolved or disbanded.
With this lawsuit, the coalition is seeking a temporary restraining order to invalidate HHS’s and Secretary Kennedy’s “mass grant terminations” in the suing states, arguing that the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
The states are also asking the court to prevent HHS from maintaining or reinstating the terminations and any agency actions implementing them.
Brown joins the Attorneys General from Colorado, Rhode Island, California, Minnesota, Arizona, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illionis, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin, as well as the Governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
©2025 Cox Media Group
