Gov. Beshear: KY will challenge Trump funding cuts to state, local health departments
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state will sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if it tries to yank federal funding for state and local health departments for COVID-related infectious disease programs.
Beshear, a Democrat and former state attorney general, said Thursday the federal government must have cause before it cancels a contract. The fact that the coronavirus pandemic is over is not a legally valid argument to nix the contracts, which were awarded during the pandemic.
“These contracts can only be terminated for cause — which means someone did something wrong,” Beshear said. “And they are trying to define cause as the pandemic is over. That’s not a legal argument. If we have to go to court, we will.”
Beshear added it was an “unlawful cancellation and we will challenge it.”
The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced it was canceling $11 billion in federal grants that went to state and local health departments amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal agency said it was pulling back the grant because COVID is now over.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” according to a termination notice federal health officials released earlier this week.
It’s not known how much the Kentucky State Department of Health and local health departments receive through the federal grant.
Officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services did not immediately respond to a request for that information.
Beshear also said Thursday he was deeply concerned about the announcement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to terminate up to 20,000 employees.
With bird flu, measles and other highly contagious diseases on the rise, now is not the time to cut staff who help the country manage those infectious diseases, he said.
If bird flu starts transmitting from birds to humans, “we are going to have a major problem in the United States,” the two-term governor said.
The grants were being used to track, prevent and control infectious diseases, including measles and bird flu, according to state and local health officials.
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM.
