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 more cash may very well 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 stated they’d but to get an replace from HHS.
“It’s just more chaos, more uncertainty,” stated 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 have 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 stated 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 giant 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 getting 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 prime of cuts to Covid-era funding that states and native governments absorbed final yr.
Huang stated Dallas County’s grant, price 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 be certain that cash is used as supposed, public health officers stated.
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, govt director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, stated {that a} temporary pause received’t have any severe affect, nevertheless 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 will probably be out there and as versatile for public health businesses making an attempt to meet native wants.
“It takes people away from preparing for helping people in the middle of a winter storm,” Juliano stated. “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 have been meant to be a once-in-a-generation funding in staffing and coaching public health departments, stated 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 stated. “If you freeze PHIG funding, each health division that could be a recipient will lose employees, and shortly.
“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 stated the US has misplaced the concept that public health offers 24/7 safety, like air site visitors controllers or the army.
“Not investing in public health infrastructure after the pandemic is like defunding the military after losing a war,” he stated. “It’s just not smart.”