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Attorney General William Tong today joined 20 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other Trump administration officials.
The lawsuit is intended to stop the Trump Administration from eliminating waste, fraud and abuse from HHS and to stop HHS Secretary Kennedy's efforts to end the epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.
“We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Kennedy said. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
“This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again,” said HHS Secretary Kennedy.
That's not how Tong sees it, of course.
Tong's statement said, "Since taking office, Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have fired thousands of federal health workers, shuttered vital programs, and abandoned states to face mounting health crises without federal support."
The AGs argue that Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have "robbed HHS of the resources necessary to effectively serve the American people" so they will be asking the court to halt any further downsizing and restore program operations.
“Trump and RFK Jr. have turned their backs on the health and safety of American families. They have fired thousands of frontline public health workers, gutted some of our most effective, lifesaving work, and pushed dangerous, debunked lies that put us all at risk. And where is all this money going? There is no plan and no thought—just lawless chaos, and we’re suing today to stop it,” said Attorney General Tong.
On March 27, Secretary Kennedy revealed a restructuring of HHS as part of the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative. The Secretary announced that the department’s 28 agencies would be collapsed into 15, with many surviving offices shuffled or split apart. He also announced a reduction in the department’s headcount from 85,000 to 65,000. On April 1, 10,000 HHS employees across the nation were terminated. Half of HHS’s regional offices were closed, including offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle.
In the lawsuit, the AGs argue that these changes have "wreaked havoc across the entire health system" and they even complained that "workers across the country can no longer reliably access N95 masks following the closure of the nation’s only federal mask approval laboratory."
They also added in some fearmongering about measles, saying that key CDC offices "responsible for testing and tracking measles" were closed and now the country wouldn't be able to monitor the diease.
Attorney General Tong and the coalition argue that these "sweeping actions are in clear violation of hundreds of federal statutes and regulations, and that the Trump administration does not have the authority to make these reckless changes."
The AGs further allege that "by taking these actions without congressional approval, the administration is disregarding the constitutional separation of powers and undermining the laws and budgets enacted by Congress to protect public health" and assert that the HHS mission "is in jeopardy."
The coalition is urging the court to halt the restructuring at HHS and immediately reverse course.
On April 1, Attorney General Tong joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration, arguing that "Trump and anti-vax conspiracy theorist Kennedy want to steal $175 million from Connecticut." On April 4, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Administration, temporarily reinstating the funding.
Joining Attorney General Tong in this lawsuit, which is being led by Tong's lawfare buddy New York Attorney General Letitia James, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
