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In a reversal from statements a day prior, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services now says it will release COVID relief funds that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to cancel, in the wake of a federal judge’s order temporarily restoring the funds.
Late last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled around $11 billion in COVID-era grants to state and local health departments, including more than $200 million to Wisconsin, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic was over and that the spending was wasteful.
In response, Wisconsin and 22 other states sued the Trump administration, arguing the cuts were unlawful and arbitrary.
Last week, a U.S. District judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from canceling the funds.
On Tuesday, DHS Secretary-designee Kirsten Johnson said the state would hold off on releasing the funds to grant recipients, despite the judge’s order. Speaking at a Q&A hosted by Wisconsin Health News, she pointed to the uncertainty about whether and for how long the judge’s order would stand.
But late Wednesday, DHS shared an email with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in which Johnson advised grant recipients that the grants were no longer canceled and they could resume work, if they chose.
The email noted the “volatile political and legal environment” and warned the funding might become unavailable again with little notice.
“We unfortunately cannot guarantee how long current grant funding will be available,” the email said. “Subgrantees will take on some risk by restarting this work.”
“We want you, our subgrantees, to be empowered to make your own decisions and we want to give you the opportunity to assess the risk for your organization to do this work,” the email continued.
The email advised grant recipients to send requests for reimbursement for expenses incurred under the grants any time after the judge’s order was issued, starting April 4.
“We understand some grantees may have concerns about restarting this work in light of the uncertainty,” the email said. “We do hope subgrantees will continue this vital work, despite the ongoing litigation.”
The grants that were canceled had been authorized by Congress as part of COVID-19 relief and recovery bills passed during the pandemic. The money was used not only for vaccinations and testing related to COVID-19, but also mental health, addiction treatment, tracking other infectious diseases and modernizing critical public health infrastructure. Some of the funding was slated to last into 2026.
The cancelations, which were made abruptly the week of March 24, led to the discontinuation of some services funded by the grants, including a mental health helpline called Uplift Wisconsin that was run by state-based peer-support specialists.
Mental Health of America Wisconsin, which ran the helpline, had to furlough 20 staff Tuesday who worked the helpline, with the idea they would be hired back if funding allowed, said Martina Gollin-Graves, the president and CEO.
She hadn’t heard as of late Wednesday afternoon from DHS about any release in funding.
Nora Hitchcock, the executive director of Our Space, which runs the Milwaukee-based respite home Parachute House, hadn’t heard from DHS about the news as of Wednesday afternoon either.
But she said the restarting of funds would mean she wouldn’t have to use emergency funds from her nonprofit to keep the respite home running.
This story was updated to add a video.
