MDH outlines revised budget cuts and warns of immediate harm after CDC cancels grants

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on March 1 that federal action cancelling multiple Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants will force an immediate stop to funded activities and seriously disrupt public health services across the state. Wendy Underwood, MDH deputy commissioner, said the CDC notified MDH that all use of the affected funds must cease immediately and that MDH has 30 days to submit final invoices.

Underwood said the cancelled grants total about $226,000,000 and fund a wide range of local public health, tribal public health and community programs as well as nearly 200 MDH employees. “These grants currently total $226,000,000 and fund a wide range of local public health, tribal public health, and community based programs across Minnesota, as well as nearly 200 employees at MDH,” Underwood told the committee. She said the immediacy of the cancellations — rather than the fact that the grants would eventually end — is what is causing the harm.

MDH presented other revisions in the governor’s revised budget that would reduce or restructure existing programs. Among items Underwood described: a reduction of the annual Public Health Infrastructure Pilot…