Gov. Laura Kelly is criticizing President Donald Trump more than a month after the federal government cut grant funding to the state. At issue is $33 million in grants to the state government for health care and mental health services and $7.4 million in direct funding to local nonprofits. "The Trump administration's abrupt and unilateral funding cuts will have severe and immediate consequences for the health, safety, and quality of life of Kansans across the state, especially in rural areas," Kelly said in a statement. "These cuts come when Kansas is in the midst of fighting two outbreaks — tuberculosis and measles — and has no additional resources to continue this work."
Governor wanted attorney general to sue president's administration
Kelly had wanted Attorney General Kris Kobach to sue Trump’s administration over the grant terminations. Kelly is chair of the Democratic Governors Association and Kobach is chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association. The governor's office said Kelly called upon Kobach "to bring a case on behalf of Kansas to fight back against federal cuts to vital state health services. The attorney general declined." "The lawsuit that the governor wanted my office to bring against the Trump Administration had no valid legal basis and was doomed to failure," Kobach said in a statement to The Capital-Journal. "It would have been a waste of money and man hours to bring the case." The governor's request appears tied to
a coalition of states suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
in federal court in Rhode Island over the public health grant cancellations. Court records show the judge issued
a temporary restraining order April 5, though it appears the order does not apply to the Kansas cuts. A motion for a preliminary injunction remained pending as of May 8. Kobach previously sent a letter to Kelly, dated April 9 and obtained by The Capital-Journal, where he said the governor's chief counsel suggested Kelly might direct Kobach to appear in the Rhode Island case and represent Kansas. Kobach said while state law may give Kelly the "authority to require me to appear, please note that under Kansas law, I retain sole authority to control the legal position of the State." "Therefore, should you request me to appear for the State in the above-referenced case, I intend to advocate for the position that I believe to be legally correct, which is on the side of the Defendants," Kobach wrote. The attorney general also advised the governor: "Should you attempt to join or intervene in litigation in your own name and purport to represent the position of the State of Kansas contrary to the legal position as determined by the Attorney General, my office will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that the State's legal position and legal interests are represented. That may include seeking to intervene on the side of the Defendants."
What federal grant cancellations mean for Kansas
The governor's office announced the "abrupt and unilateral termination" of the grants in a May 8 news release. Kelly's office said the Trump administration notified the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services that six grants administered by the agencies were being terminated immediately. The notices were sent March 25, with the terminations effective March 24. "The mission of the grants and employees paid through that funding was to strengthen the state's epidemiology and laboratory work, monitor and respond to disease outbreak, administer critical programs that provide vaccines for children, and address health disparities for underserved communities and rural Kansans," the governor's office said. The cuts forced KDHE "to abolish 56 positions in vital health posts, leaving communities without access to critical services," the governor's office said. "This marks the first large-scale state employment dismissal initiated by the Trump administration’s cuts to congressionally authorized funds." The governor's office said it is monitoring federal actions and Kelly "is committed to pushing back against the Trump administration's harmful actions that impact Kansans and has directed the Department of Administration to take proactive steps to provide resources to those affected by the separations."
Capital-Journal previously reported DOGE cuts to KDHE and KDADS
The governor's May 8 announcement is an update on
previous reporting by The Capital-Journal . The Capital-Journal reported March 27 on grant cancellations to KDHE and KDADS. The
Department of Government Efficiency website claimed a savings of about $49 million from 16 total canceled grants to KDHE, KDADS and the University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute. The grant funding was from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which did not respond to a request for comment at the time.
Why HHS cut federal grant funding to Kansas
The KDHE funding was tied to COVID-19-related grants from HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency previously confirmed it had received several termination notices, but did not confirm the number of cancelled grants or the amount of lost funding. "This decision impacts COVID-19-related funding for immunizations, health disparities, community health workers, and epidemiology programs," KDHE spokesperson Jill Bronaugh said March 26. At the time, she said the agency did not know if losing the funding could affect non-COVID public health efforts in Kansas, which faces outbreaks of
measles and
tuberculosis . The KDADS funding was through two awards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency previously told The Capital-Journal. One award from
SAMHSA was listed at $10.4 million and the other was
listed at $359,000 and weren't scheduled to expire until Sept. 30. Agency spokesperson Cara Sloan-Ramos had said "these grants were established to support essential substance abuse and mental health services within our state."
NBC News reported March 25 that CDC was pulling back $11.4 billion in funding from the coronavirus response. "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to NBC. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
