Hawaii and 19 other states were granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday to prevent the dismantling of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, just as the Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill to deliver on his agenda.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez joined 19 other attorneys general in receiving a preliminary injunction Tuesday to prevent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to dismantle DHS, as Hawaii’s two U.S. senators voted along Democratic Party lines against Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D, Hawaii) said in a statement that Trump’s federal spending bill will eliminate Med-QUEST and cut food assistance programs for families across the country and in Hawaii — eliminating health care for 40,000 island residents and food assistance for over 20,000 island families.
Nationally, Schatz said it would eliminate health insurance, raise monthly health care costs and slash nutritional assistance for those in need to provide tax cuts for the “ultra-wealthy.”
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D, Hawaii) also lambasted the bill, calling it “a big ugly betrayal of the American people,” in a statement. “It will rip access to health care, food, education, energy savings, and more from millions of Americans, all to pay for giveaways for millionaires and billionaires. While billionaires will gain, this bill is 1,000 pages of pain for hardworking families in Hawaii and across our country.”
Both Hirono and Schatz vowed to do what they can with other Democrats to derail the bill, which now returns to the Republican-led House of Representatives after Senate Republicans added additional provisions projected to add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit.
“While Republicans are hellbent on doing Trump’s bidding — regardless of the consequences for their constituents — Democrats will do everything we can to protect the programs Americans rely on,” Hirono said. “The fight goes on.”
Said Schatz, “The fight to kill this thing isn’t over yet. It’s up to all of us to keep doing whatever we can to make sure everyone knows just how terrible this bill really is. Congress should be focused on lowering costs and improving people’s lives — this does the opposite.”
Also on Tuesday, federal Judge Melissa R. Dubose of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s mass layoffs at several key U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies under Kennedy.
Lopez joined the lawsuit filed May 5 along with fellow attorneys general from Lopez from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
Kennedy announced on March 27 his plans to restructure HHS by merging 28 agencies into 15, fire 10,000 employees “and left key HHS offices shuttered or in disarray,” according to Lopez’s office. “Many workers learned they were fired only after being locked out of their offices and deactivated from government systems.”
The attorneys general who filed suit said that Kennedy’s actions reduced access to Head Start centers, suspended maternal health data collection, crippled disease monitoring at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and eliminated the team responsible for updating federal poverty guidelines used to determine eligibility for programs like SNAP, Medicaid and housing assistance.
Judge DuBose’s temporary injunction stops the termination of Kennedy’s plans, including the elimination of jobs at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health; Center for Tobacco Products; Office of Head Start; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Source: The Garden Island