Governor Ned Lamont announced 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.
