As public health departments throughout the nation ready for an enormous winter storm this weekend, discover landed of their inboxes that pivotal grant funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was paused. No extra money could possibly be spent.
Within hours, a US Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to NCS that the pause had been lifted, though grant recipients mentioned that they had but to get an replace from HHS.
“It’s just more chaos, more uncertainty,” mentioned Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas. “It just interferes with our ability to provide these public health services to our community.”
No grants had been terminated, in accordance to HHS.
“The Public Health Infrastructure Grants were temporarily paused so HHS could implement a new review process, one that will ensure funds are used for their intended purposes and in alignment with agency priorities,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon mentioned in an electronic mail to NCS. “HHS will continue to protect taxpayer money and ensure they are used for legitimate purposes.”
According to the CDC, the grants funded health departments in 50 states and Washington, DC, eight territories and 48 massive localities. As of December 2025, $5.1 billion had been awarded: $4.7 billion to 107 health departments and $382 million to nationwide companions. Funds are used for lab testing, responding to and making ready for emergencies and direct affected person care. They paid for 1000’s of public health jobs throughout the nation.
For a number of hours Saturday, it appeared that this funding pause would come on high of cuts to Covid-era funding that states and native governments absorbed final yr.
Huang mentioned Dallas County’s grant, value greater than $2 million, was used for key methods for illness investigation and surveillance, vaccine administration – together with check-in methods for big public vaccination occasions – and on a regular basis actions like affected person transportation.
There are already methods in place to monitor spending and make sure that cash is used as meant, public health officers mentioned.
The pause notices despatched Saturday — and obvious fast reversal — echoed an earlier pivot by the Trump administration, which introduced cuts to thousands of grants for substance abuse and mental health this month earlier than abruptly reversing course.
Chrissie Juliano, government director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, mentioned {that a} transient pause gained’t have any severe affect, however it’s a hearth drill in the course of different emergencies. It additionally raises questions on whether or not “safe” {dollars} that officers anticipated to final for years might be accessible and as versatile for public health companies attempting to meet native wants.
“It takes people away from preparing for helping people in the middle of a winter storm,” Juliano mentioned. “It makes people question what’s coming next. Which shoe is going to drop, and what program is going to be cut?”
Public Health Infrastructure Grant funds had been meant to be a once-in-a-generation funding in staffing and coaching public health departments, mentioned Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a nonprofit that research and helps the US public health workforce.
“This is jobs,” Castrucci mentioned. “If you freeze PHIG funding, every health department that is a recipient will lose staff, and quickly.
“Anyone who’s paid by this grant – the new epidemiologist to help do better surveillance for disease, the outreach worker to help people get the health care they need – those people would all be gone.”
Castrucci mentioned the US has misplaced the concept public health supplies 24/7 safety, like air visitors controllers or the army.
“Not investing in public health infrastructure after the pandemic is like defunding the military after losing a war,” he mentioned. “It’s just not smart.”
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