A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to continue blocking the Trump administration from cutting $11 billion in Covid-era funding, including hundreds of millions to city and state health agencies.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island said the administration’s deep and sudden reductions, under the Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, could do irreparable harm to local health systems. The decision will extend a halt on the cuts while the issue plays out in courts.
The cuts included $360 million to the state Department of Health, Office of Addiction Services and Supports and Office of Mental Health. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene faced another $100 million used for infectious disease control, including vaccination, detection and treatment. The spending, which was authorized during the pandemic, is used for a wide range of public health initiatives beyond Covid-19 response and treatment.
The Covid-era aid represents one of many federal streams under threat by Trump and Republicans in Congress, who are carrying out an unprecedented campaign to reduce federal health infrastructure. Hospital systems in New York have begun to downsize in the face of the headwinds, with Columbia University, New York-Presbyterian and Catholic Health all announcing broad layoffs this month. Gov. Kathy Hochul has repeatedly said states could not “backfill” the funding cuts from Washington.
New York and a coalition of 22 other states and Washington, D.C., sued the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop the cuts in April, arguing they would have devastating effects on local health departments’ abilities to function and broke procedural norms.
The decision is the latest in the head-spinning opening months of President Donald Trump’s second term for hospital and public health leaders who have seen billions of dollars worth of once-reliable federal funding fall into question. In testimony before the City Council in March, city Health Department officials said the Covid-era funding was a silver lining in an otherwise bleak outlook due to other cuts on the horizon. Days later, Health and Human Services notified the agency that it was eliminating the $100 million. The judge’s ruling Friday will put the money back on the table for now.
That funding is backing a “long-overdue modernization” of the city’s infectious disease program and helps the city prepare for future emergencies, said Interim Health Commissioner Michelle Morse in a statement lauding the injunction.
The extension of the block forestalls just one threat to federal aid while Republicans in Washington sharpen their knives to take a deeper bite out of Medicaid funding. An analysis from the Hochul administration released Monday found Medicaid reductions being considered in the House would cost New York over $13.5 billion and leave 1.5 million low-income residents uninsured.
