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On April 1, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and 22 other states filed a lawsuit in an effort to halt the Trump administration’s cuts to COVID-era health funding. On April 3, a federal district court in Rhode Island issued a Temporary Restraining Order immediately restores $11 billion in critical public health funding to state and local public health agencies across the country. This included the SAMHSA cuts, as well as $226 million cut from the Minnesota Department of Health. A preliminary injunction hearing took place April 17 in Rhode Island, where the court asked for more legal briefing before making that determination. The Temporary Restraining Order remains in effect until the court issues a final decision on whether to issue a preliminary injunction, which will likely happen in May.
With the order in place, ARPA funds within grantees’ contracts are currently available and DHS fully intends to pay grantees as long as the federal funding remains available to DHS. However, if the court denies the request for a more permanent preliminary injunction, or if later court proceedings overturn the issuance of a preliminary injunction, DHS would again lack authority to reimburse agencies for work.
Earlier this week, DHS reached out to grantees, encouraging them to review the Temporary Restraining Order with their organization's legal counsel, and to assess whether the order provides sufficient assurance for their organization to resume impacted services. DHS suggests organizations make an independent determination based on their risk tolerance and legal advice, and monitor the case docket for any developments.
This is a challenging situation for impacted organizations and the people they serve. The continuous uncertainty created by the federal government unfortunately prevents DHS from being able to provide more definitive guidance at this time. The department will continue to closely monitor this situation and will provide additional updates as more information becomes available.
There were 85 contracts affected by SAMHSA’s abrupt action, which cut funding to counties, Tribal Nations, urban Indian organizations, school districts, provider organizations, and support and services from other state agencies. The cuts are expansive, and will have a direct and drastic impact on thousands of people in need. To see a full list of impacted grantees, and descriptions of programs impacted, see this Behavioral Health e-Memo from April 3.
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Sudden funding disruptions create tremendous stress and chaos for our partners and the people they serve. Unfortunately, these actions have become more common. That’s why Governor Tim Walz recently announced a new dashboard Minnesotans can use to track disruptions and cancellations of federal funding and their impact on services available to Minnesotans. Federal disruptions and cuts so far include grants to track measles and avian influenza, provide heating assistance, and mitigate flooding.
DHS will continue working with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, as well as other state partners, to advocate for the vital work behavioral health grantees do across our state.
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