Oregon Joins Lawsuit Against RFK Jr. To Halt Dismantling of Health and Human Services Programs
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield joined a 20-member coalition of attorneys general in a lawsuit against Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other Trump administration officials yesterday to stop the dismantling of HHS.
Rayfield said, “RFK Jr.’s actions cross legal lines and basic standards of decency.”
Oregon Joins Coalition To Stop Dismantling Of Health & Human Services Dept.
On March 27, RFK Jr. unveiled a dramatic restructuring of HHS as part of President Trump’s DOGE initiative. His move meant the department’s 28 agencies would be collapsed into 15, with many surviving offices shuffled or split apart.
Mass firings would slash the department’s workforce from 85,000 to 65,000. RFK Jr. and the Trump administration have subsequently fired thousands of federal health workers, shuttered vital programs, and abandoned states to face mounting health crises without federal support.
Rayfield said, “You can’t just shut down public health programs and fire the experts who run them without consequences. That kind of chaos puts Oregonians at risk– it crosses both legal lines and basic standards of decency.”
The lawsuit follows that of April 1, when the Oregon AG joined a 23-member AG coalition in a lawsuit Against RFK Jr. Over ‘Assault On Well-Being Of All Americans.’ On April 4, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Administration, temporarily reinstating the funding.
In the latest lawsuit, the AG coalition asks the court to halt further dismantling and restoring key program operations, arguing that these changes have wreaked havoc across the entire health system.
They name key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) infectious disease laboratories that have been shuttered- including those responsible for testing and tracking measles- effectively halting the federal government’s ability to monitor the disease nationwide, as one example.
Rayfield argues that these sweeping actions clearly violate hundreds of federal statutes and regulations and that the Trump administration does not have the authority to make these reckless changes.
The AGs say that by taking these actions without congressional approval, the Trump Administration disregards the constitutional separation of powers and undermines the laws and budgets enacted by Congress to protect public health.
They urged the court to halt the mass firings, reverse the illegal reorganization, and restore the critical health services that millions of Americans depend on.