SEATTLE — Washington state will lose over $150 million if cuts to the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are allowed to stand.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown joined a lawsuit Tuesday against the cuts, alongside 24 other states that alleged the abrupt cancellation of $11 billion in public health funding is illegal.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health, announced last week he planned to remake HHS into a new agency titled the Administration for a Healthy America, vowing to do “more with less.” That included slashing funding to several agencies, cancelling grants and announcing 10,000 layoffs of public health employees, alongside another 10,000 who took early retirements or voluntary separation offers…