The Illinois Department of Public Health announced today that it had received notice that Trump Administration is terminating federal grants nationwide which had been already assigned nearly 5 years ago to support the ongoing work to protect the public from infectious diseases. The termination pulls back $125 million in funding for IDPH and 97 local public health departments, which had been allocated by IDPH for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Disease (aka, ELC) program and other uses.
In addition to rescinding $125 million in previously approved investments, the Republicans’ administration is also blocking $324 million for future work to prevent and treat infectious disease in Illinois.
The funding cut affects IDPH and and statewide local health department operations not only in the current fiscal year ending June 30, but well into the next two state fiscal years.
“While IDPH has been preparing for anticipated federal budget cuts, the termination of this awarded funding will have a debilitating impact on our efforts to protect the health of Illinoisans,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “If allowed to stand, this funding cut will set back critical upgrades to our public health labs, technology used to track infectious diseases like H5N1 avian flu and measles, vaccination efforts, and our ongoing work to better prepare for the next public health emergency.”
Simultaneous to the notice to the IDPH, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced to the Illinois Department of Human Services that the Trump Administration is terminating up to $28 million that Congress directed to Illinois for mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
The two agencies were funded from multiple pieces of legislation: the bulk of the money was assigned to the IDPH through 14 separate budget lines in the federal bipartisan CARES Act passed during the first Trump Administration. The SAMHSA funding was granted through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and allocated to 77 community-based organizations which provide direct services to thousands of individuals living across Illinois. These funds enabled behavioral health crisis response services, support for young people experiencing early symptoms of psychosis, substance use recovery homes, and substance use prevention services.
IDPH allocated the targeted funds for technology to track the spread of diseases, invest in labs that test samples for infectious diseases, surveil wastewater, build the public health workforce, and strengthen local health departments. As originally passed, the CARES Act would have provided up to $449 million in direct long-term support for the state’s disease surveillance and vaccination activities. However, with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic having passed, IDPH intended to rely on $125 million of the remaining funds to strengthen COVID-19, measles and H5N1 disease surveillance, and to prepare for future potential pandemics.
The American Rescue Plan Act, meanwhile, was intended to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to inflict a lasting effect on the mental and behavioral health of Illinoisans. COVID-19 left long-term impacts on stress, anxiety, and depression; alcohol use, in particular, increased during the pandemic, with a RAND Corporation survey finding that adult alcohol consumption increased by 14% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
While Illinois has made substantial progress in addressing these impacts, the state notes the federal funds budgeted by Congress were critical to supporting mental health and substance use recovery.
“This decision to terminate already awarded federal funding will cause immeasurable harm and disruption to the health and safety of the people of Illinois and generate larger expenses in the longer run,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “At a time when Americans desperately need support for mental health and substance abuse, the Trump Administration has again prioritized cruelty over care and cut essential funds states were relying on to fund lifesaving programs… The State of Illinois will do everything in our power to restore this vital federal funding and continue to invest in common sense public health solutions to keep our state safe and healthy.”
