Nineteen states and D.C. are seeking to invalidate a March 2025 directive to reduce the number of HHS employees and eliminate several sub-agencies.
A federal judge has dismissed an attempt by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia over the restructuring and reorganization in the department.
The states and D.C. are seeking to invalidate Kennedy’s actions, including a March 27, 2025 directive announcing the goal of “drastically reducing the number of employees” and eliminating several sub-agencies within HHS, according to the complaint.
The court had granted a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent those actions from moving forward. HHS appealed, seeking an emergency stay, and was denied in a September 17, 2025 decision.
Six weeks later, HHS dismissed its appeal and instead focused on a motion to dismiss the states’ amended complaint.
On April 7, Judge Melissa R. DuBose in federal court in Rhode Island, denied RFK Jr.’s request, due to the failure to demonstrate the entitlement to dismiss it, according to the ruling.
WHY THIS MATTERS
In October 2025, thousands of federal employees, including HHS staffers, received layoff notices.
HHS also announced plans to consolidate 28 divisions of the agency to 15 and to establish an Administration for a Healthy America.
The states said in their lawsuit that the decisions to restructure HHS violated the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine, ran afoul of the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and was an unlawful exercise of the Executive’s power, among other cited reasons.
The states amended their complaint to add objections to the Food and Drug Administration missing its vaccine application deadline and cancelling a test for the virus that causes bird flu; Office closures and layoffs which have required the Head Start and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program grantees to “fend for themselves”; and a lack of doctors available to certify new illnesses for coverage as required to care for the responders and survivors of the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001.
The states that brought the lawsuit are New York, Washington, Rhode Island, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
THE LARGER TREND
Earlier this month, the White House proposed its 2027 budget, including $15.8 billion in cuts to HHS.
The budget requests $111.1 billion in discretionary budget authority for HHS for 2027, a $15.8 billion or 12.5% decrease from 2026.
The Administration for a Healthy America, which includes programs to improve nutrition, food and drug quality and chronic disease prevention, includes $19 million for services at Health Centers and invests $57 million to remove unsafe chemicals from the food supply. It also supports modernizing and streamlining the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory capability by supporting AI and machine learning and developing alternatives to animal testing, the budget said.
Other programs saw funding cuts. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) lost $4 billion and the National Institutes of Health lost $5 billion.
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