PROVIDENCE – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has terminated $31 million in grants to the Rhode Island Department of Health after the Trump administration said it would take back $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funding from state and local public health agencies and organizations.
Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for RIDOH, confirmed on Wednesday four grants the department received “to support our capacity in various areas of the department post-COVID-19 have been terminated.”
Specifically, the grants “partially support vaccination work, some of our epidemiology and laboratory capacity work, work to address health disparities, and community health workers,” Wendelken wrote in an email to the Globe. He noted, however, the construction of the new state health laboratory is not affected by the cuts.
“While the work funded by these grants goes beyond responding to COVID-19, CDC’s cause for terminating these grants was the end of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wendelken wrote. “We are working very closely with the Governor’s Office and the Rhode Island Attorney General to explore all options to safeguard the funding that supports the critical work done by the Department of Health.”
On Tuesday, federal health officials said they would cut billions in COVID-related funding and that the CDC had begun sending out the termination notices to local and state health departments on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The CDC expects to start recouping the money in about 30 days.
“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,” the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
Federal officials said the money largely covered COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and other projects, including a program aimed at addressing COVID disparities among high-risk and underserved patients, the AP reported.
Wendelken said the Rhode Island Department of Health was notified of the cuts through its grants manager software.
A notice the department received in the management system said it was a “for cause” termination, according text of the notice provided to the Globe by Wendelken.
“The end of the pandemic provides cause to terminate COVID-related grants and cooperative agreements,” the notice said. “These grants and cooperative agreements were issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purpose has run out.”
Speaking Tuesday on WPRI, which first reported the cuts in Rhode Island, state Attorney General Peter Neronha said he plans to push back against the rescinded funding, noting it covered efforts such as childhood vaccination and how the state would respond to future pandemics.
“The state is going to have to make a decision,” Neronha said. “Either we’re going to continue doing this work at the state’s expense, or not do it at all.”
Alexa Gagosz of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
This story has been updated to include information from a termination notice received by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.