Providence, RI – A federal judge ruled that recent mass dismissals at the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services were probably illegal and ordered the Trump administration to end the plans to reduce and reorganize the workforce of the country’s health.
US District Judge Melissa Dubose granted the preliminary injunction requested by a coalition of 19 states prosecutors and the Columbia district in legal action tabled in early May.
Dubose said that the States had shown “irreparable damage”, cuts and were likely to prevail in their assertions that “HHS ‘action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to the law”.
“Executive power does not have the power to order, organize or implement the structural changes in the structure and the function of the agencies created by the Congress,” Dubose wrote in a 58 -page order rendered to the American district court of Providence.
His order prevents the Trump administration from finalizing the dismissals announced in March or from issuing other layoffs. HHS is responsible for submitting a state report by July 11.
The decision applies to employees dismissed in four different divisions of HHS: American centers for the control and prevention of diseases; The Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug Administration; The Head Start office in the administration for children and families and employees of regional offices working on Head Start questions; and the office of the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation.
The Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., eliminated more than 10,000 employees at the end of March and consolidated 28 agencies to 15. Since then, agencies such as the CDC have repeatedly canceled the dismissals affecting hundreds of employees, including in the branches that monitor HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.
The general prosecutors argued that the massive restructuring was arbitrary and outside the extent of the agency authority. The trial also indicates that the action has decimated essential programs and has grown heavy costs on states.
“The planned effect … was the wholesale of many HHS programs which are essential to public health and security,” said the trial.
Cups are part of a federal directive “Make America Healthy Again” to rationalize expensive agencies and reduce redundancies. Kennedy told senators during a May 14 audience that there were “so many chaos and disorganization” at HHS.
But restructuring had eliminated key teams that regulate food security and drugs, as well as to support a wide range of tobacco, HIV and maternal and child health programs. Kennedy has since said that because of errors, 20% of dismissed persons could be restored.
States that have joined the trial have democratic governors, and many of the same states – plus a few others – also continued the Trump administration more than $ 11 billion in public health funding reductions. A preliminary injunction was granted in this case in mid-May.
