A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to temporarily halt all reorganization plans after finding agency leaders likely usurped Congress in recent downsizing efforts.
Judge Melissa DuBose of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island granted a request from 20 state attorneys general to stop the agency and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from moving forward with any planned "Reductions-in-Force" or restructuring efforts while a lawsuit over recent layoffs continues.
Dubose wrote in her order that HHS leaders "failed to demonstrate" how the layoffs of nearly 10,000 workers employees made the department's "sub-agencies more efficient, saved taxpayer dollars or aligned with HHS's priority of 'ending America's epidemic of chronic illness, by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins."
She wrote later that the agency "usurped congressional power to manage the public health appropriations at stake" and "failed to submit any evidence that HHS can meet its congressional orders without applying the federal appropriations and employing the essential staff and experts who run its programs."
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"An examination of the relevant statutes supports the conclusion that Congress never meant to confer HHS the power to self-destruct," Dubose wrote in her order.
On March 27, HHS leaders expressed their intent to consolidate the agency's 28 divisions into 15. Ten regional offices would be collapsed into five regional offices. A new division called Administration for a Healthy America would have been created, the judge said.
On April 1, HHS sent notices to 10,000 employees informing them they had been placed on administrative leave and that they would be terminated on June 2, though other court orders have delayed this action.
The lawsuit was brought by attorneys general of New York, Washington, Rhode Island, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin.
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