The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abruptly canceled over $12 billion in federal grants to state and local health agencies last month. That funding was being used for tracking infectious diseases, vaccinating children, and mental health and addiction services.
Kansas and Missouri lost millions in funding, and here in the Kansas City area, the impacts include loss of staff and research projects cut short.
According to Dr. Marvia Jones, director of the Kansas City Health Department, over 50% of her agency’s budget comes from federal grants.
While she's been able to shift funding sources around in the interim to keep her staff from being laid off, Jones told KCUR's Up To Date "our fear is about what's coming next.”
According to a document obtained by POLITICO, the Trump administration is now considering a more than 30% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under the new proposal, public health initiatives to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic would no longer exist, and major parts of the National Institutes of Health would be abolished.
These changes come as local public health departments grapple with the resurgence of bird flu, and as a measles outbreak spreads across multiple states, including Kansas.
“I am now worried that we are going to be back where we were in 2020, with the way that the cuts have occurred,” Jones says.
- Dr. Marvia Jones, director of the Kansas City Health Department
- Charlie Hunt, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment
