Mississippi could lose over $100 million in public health and mental health funding as a result of sweeping cuts of federal grants allocated for COVID-19 pandemic relief.
The cancellation of grants awarded to the Mississippi State Department of Health totals $117,848,189, according to the Department of Government Efficiency’s “wall of receipts.” However, the site is known to include errors and does not specify which grants the cuts apply to.
The sudden cuts have provoked uncertainty in the agency charged with wide-reaching tasks such as combatting disease and sexually transmitted infection outbreaks, regulating health care facilities and ensuring food and water safety across the state.
Officials could not say Thursday how large the cuts are or what impact they will have on public health efforts in Mississippi.
Greg Flynn, a spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said he could not verify the amount of the cuts, but that the slashed grants were being used for vaccinations and infectious disease testing.
“Right now, we’re still working to see the potential impacts it will have on the agency,” said Flynn Wednesday. “(State Health Officer) Dr. Edney is working to make sure the mission still goes forward as they figure out how much money has to go back. Then, that will determine decisions that have to be made.”
The health department is reviewing each of its programs to determine how much of the grant funding has already been spent, Flynn said. The clawbacks apply to funding that was not spent as of March 24.
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health will lose approximately $7.5 million in funding, said agency spokesperson Adam Moore.
The grant cancellations surpass $12 billion nationwide, NBC first reported Tuesday, and include funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The grants were initially allocated by Congress for testing and vaccination against the coronavirus as part of COVID-19 relief legislation, and to address health disparities in high-risk and underserved populations. Health departments were allowed to use the funds for other public health efforts beginning last year, including testing and surveillance of other respiratory viruses, vaccines and health emergency preparedness, reported The New York Times.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
The funds were being used nationwide to strengthen responses to infectious disease crises, including measles and bird flu outbreaks, Dr. Joseph Kanter, the CEO of the Association and Territorial Health Officials, told CNN.
The health department is not currently considering layoffs, and has not asked the state Legislature for additional funding, Flynn said.
Appropriations for fiscal year 2026 for state agencies will likely be finalized in the coming weeks. The agency’s funding request this year was meager, amounting to a net increase of $1.6 million dollars.
Over half of the agency’s $600 million budget is funded with federal dollars. State appropriations account for just 15% of its total budget.
The discontinued Department of Mental Health grants were allocated across a variety of programs and funded or supported services that include diversion coordination, school mental health programs, a program for first-episode psychosis, residential and outpatient services for alcohol and drug addiction, and more, the agency’s spokesperson said.
The grants, allocated through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, were scheduled to expire in September.
Some of the discontinued funding was allocated towards naloxone distribution, but the department has additional funding to maintain its availability, Moore said.
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