Governor Ned Lamont today announced on 3/27 that his administration was notified this week by the Trump administration through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that it is immediately terminating a number of grants estimated to total more than $150 million that had been allocated to Connecticut for a wide range of essential public health, mental health, and addiction services, such as disease outbreak surveillance, newborn screenings, childhood immunizations, and testing for viruses and other pathogens.
The grants were largely committed to the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). The agencies are analyzing the impact of these cuts and as more information becomes available will notify providers in Connecticut that were expecting this funding.
These cuts are part of more than $11.4 billion in public health grants that the Trump administration announced this week it is rescinding from states nationwide. Congress has long recognized that public health begins at the state and local level and appropriated these funds to strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.
These abrupt and unexpected cuts to our health system are going to have a devastating impact on our ability to fight disease, protect the health of newborns, provide mental health and addiction treatment services, and keep people safe,” Governor Lamont said. “We should be making it easier and cheaper for people to access critical health care, including mental health services. I am urging the Trump administration to recognize that these cuts go beyond what is reasonable and reverse this rash and impulsive decision. I will do everything I can to support the health and safety of the residents of Connecticut.”
Some of the hardest impacts will be felt by DPH’s Infectious Disease Branch and the Connecticut State Public Health Laboratory. On Wednesday, dozens of projects and all work being done by vendors and consultants funded by these grants were ordered to stop. Grants are also being eliminated that fund immunization activities and address health disparities. DPH is also being forced to cancel 48 contracts with local health departments and other providers for immunization services.
“This is a dark day for public health,” DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, M.D., said. “These grants fund many of our core public health functions. While we are still assessing the impact to our agency, we know that these cuts will severely hamper our ability to respond to any future infectious disease outbreaks, childhood immunization programs that we fund must now end, and critical work we have done to strengthen and increase our capacity to protect the public health of Connecticut’s residents must stop. COVID-19 may have been the catalyst for these grants but, as Congress intended, these funds were being used to modernize our systems, strengthen our workforce, educate the public, protect our children all to prevent or mitigate the damage to human lives caused by future disease outbreaks. I hope that the administration will reconsider its decision once they realize the full scope of the critical work funded by these grants.”
DMHAS, which oversees Connecticut’s behavioral health needs in the areas of mental health treatment and substance abuse prevention and treatment, cautions that the cuts could impact services related to housing and employment supports, regional suicide advisory boards, harm reduction, perinatal screening, early-stage treatments, and increased access to medication assisted treatment.
“Let there be no doubt that this unanticipated and sudden cessation of these block grants will be immediately and consequentially disruptive to the behavioral health system in Connecticut,” DMHAS Commissioner Nancy Navarretta said. “These resources were deployed by DMHAS in a contemplative and rigorous fashion to assist providers in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and its latent impacts based on a timeline that was clearly established and articulated by Congress and the United States Treasury. Now, our clients and providers are put at risk due to an unwarranted and uninformed decision. The services at risk include housing and employment supports, regional suicide advisory boards, harm reduction, perinatal screening, early-stage treatments, and increased access to medication assisted treatment. These are lifesaving and life-changing services for our state’s residents who are asking for help at a vulnerable time in their life – all of which was exacerbated by the pandemic. In the hours and days ahead, there will be uncertainty in the system, and we will be working closely with our providers and clients to ensure they know we continue to seek solutions to continue these programs for as long as possible.”
Funding cuts will also extend beyond DPH and DMHAS. Funding is being eliminated for the Family Bridge Program, which is administered by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood and provides up to three at-home visits from registered nurses and community health workers for families of newborns to help with the transition from hospital to home.
The following table provides a preliminary analysis of the cuts and their impact on services provided by DPH. Additional analysis of these cuts and their impact on other agencies are underway.
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