NH DHHS reports sudden end to federal COVID-era grants, agency reviews contracts and staff funding

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services told the Health and Human Services Oversight Committee on March 28 that federal pandemic-era grants it had been spending through September 2026 were abruptly terminated, affecting roughly $80,000,000 in approved awards and contracts.

"Most of our staff had left for the day when at 05:38PM on Monday, in comes an email that basically says you no longer have this funding effective immediately," Commissioner Lori Weaver said, describing departmental reaction after staff opened the notice the next morning.

The department said about $75 million of the total was tied to public-health grants — primarily epidemiology and laboratory capacity and CDC health-disparities funding — and about $5 million related to behavioral-health grants. Weaver said roughly 20 DHHS staff who had been funded by the grants faced immediate funding gaps; the department worked with the state Division of Personnel to reassign or replace funding sources and said it had, so far, retained most positions.

"We have been successful internally, with being able to, maintain our 20 folks," Weaver said. She added that a separate group of roughly 20 contracted lab staff were let go immediately when the contracts were stopped, which the department said caused disruption for long-standing contractors.

Trish (Tricia) Tilly, a DHHS staff member who walked the committee through a handout, said the grants funded behind-the-scenes work — data systems, laboratorians, and community health workers who staff federally qualified health centers, family resource centers and regional public-health networks. She said many projects were planned to be phased out by fall 2026 and that the early termination effectively accelerated a 15-month off-ramp the department had budgeted for.

"This is really the nuts and bolts of public health... It is the data systems, it is the laboratorians, it's all the folks that aren't out front, but are making sure that we can do disease detection," Tilly told the committee. She warned work on data systems and unfinished infrastructure may be suspended or scrapped and later cost more to restart.

DHHS said it has identified roughly 61 contracts connected to the funding, with about 47 primarily funded by the grants. Contractors received stop-work notices and were asked to submit billing within 10 days for reimbursements for work performed to date, a request department staff acknowledged was disruptive to community partners.

Committee members asked how the staffing moves would affect the department's lapse (unspent appropriation) and service delivery. Weaver said most of the 20 positions could be cost-allocated to other federal grants or reassigned; she estimated about five people still needed reassignment rather than a straight swap of funding sources and emphasized that, as of the meeting, no permanent layoffs had occurred.

Legislators pressed the department for more specifics on lab operations, reagent purchases and summer-season testing capacity. Weaver said the water lab and some virology testing will be affected and the department is assessing where to find alternate funding or whether to accelerate Medicaid-billing work to sustain community health workers.

The department said it was engaging the governor's office and federal delegation to seek clarification and potential remedies, but provided no timeline for restoration of funding. Committee members asked DHHS to return with additional financial and program impact details at a future meeting.

Ending: Lawmakers said they expected more detailed budget and program impact information as DHHS completes its review. Commissioner Weaver told the committee the department is still analyzing contract obligations, vendor impacts and service gaps and will update legislators as new information becomes available.