Federal funding cuts related to COVID-19 on Monday are now sending California public health departments and organizations into a scramble.
The cuts target local programs for COVID-19 prevention. But it doesn’t all go to one cause — the funding also goes to epidemiology work related to other illnesses, like the avian flu.
Sacramento County spokesperson Janna Haynes says the funds were originally set to wind down at the end of 2026.
“We knew from the beginning that we would not have this funding forever, but we thought we had quite a bit more time to ramp down these programs or get new grants or get new funding,” she said.
She also said this will spread public health divisions thin.
“If we have to start picking and pulling funding from other places in order to appropriately ramp these programs down, that means that any other programs are going to receive a little bit less funding,” she said.
Haynes added the county will cut at least five positions early, along with significant funding it passes on to community organizations.
Brian Castrucci is the president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which advocates for public health workers nationwide.
“This is a car wreck,” he said. “Having this much funding pulled without warning, without preparation — it means that there are projects that we won’t be able to finish, which means we’ve kind of lost that initial investment, and there are going to be people who are laid off.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in an emailed statement the cuts total $11.4 billion.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office says the total cuts to California are still unclear, but could be about $62 million or more.
LAO Analyst Mark Newton says the move could force lawmakers to make difficult cuts in the budget.
“The budget — the situation is roughly balanced now — with projected deficits in future years — and so there just isn’t the capacity to absorb and add a whole lot of new state spending,” he said.
Newton added that’s going to be an issue as the state tries to plan around further cuts from the federal government.
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