Local organizations and health departments are trying to navigate their outreach and management after losing nearly $12 billion worth of public health grants across the country.
The Arizona Department of Health Services said late last month that it received notice from the federal government that nearly $200 million in grants to the state had been terminated.
“An estimated $190,447,045 million in grant funds, which were committed and planned for spending in approved multi-year projects, have been canceled,” ADHS said in a press release. “This includes more than 269 contracts with local organizations throughout Arizona, including all 15 county health departments, several Tribal health departments, and university partners.”
Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes joined nearly two dozen other attorneys general in filing a complaint against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for abruptly terminating the funds “with no warning or legally valid explanation.” They are hoping to seek a temporary restraining order to invalidate the mass terminations.
Attorney General Mayes said, “By slashing these grants, the Trump administration has launched an all-out attack on Arizona’s public health system—harming the entire state, but hitting rural communities the hardest. These cuts target the very places that rely most on this critical funding. Eliminating it would devastate our already precarious system and cost jobs across Arizona, from doctors to tribal health workers."
The AG’s office lists possible impacts from the grant terminations including the dissolving or disbanding of:
- Healthcare jobs, infrastructure and training
- Efforts to modernize Arizona’s outdated disease surveillance system
- Behavioral health services
- Routine vaccination efforts
- Grants for rural health departments, tribal health groups, non-profit organizations, and more
