State attorneys general and governors are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the agency’s recent cancellation of billions in funding allocated to health departments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The HHS’s decision to pull back some $12 billion in funding was made without proper cause, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the suit says.
Government officials said that ending the grants and agreements was done because they were “issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic.”
“Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purpose has run out,” they said….