Statement: Cutting Funding for State Health Departments Puts Mainers' Health at Risk

MEDIA STATEMENT

For immediate release: March 26, 2025

Contact: Matt Wellington (mwellington@mainepublichealth.org; 845-591-5646) 

       Statement: Cutting Funding for State Health Departments Puts Mainers' Health at Risk

AUGUSTA–-The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will cut more than $12 billion allocated for biosecurity response, addiction, and mental health services to state health departments and nongovernmental organizations across the country. While the details remain unclear, Maine will likely lose millions of dollars as a result, which will seriously impact the health of Maine communities.

In response, Matthew Wellington, Associate Director of Maine Public Health Association, released the following statement:

“These short sighted funding cuts will have serious impacts for Mainers' health and safety. At a time when we’re experiencing an intense flu season in Maine, a measles outbreak in multiple states across the country, and the looming threat of bird flu, we should be investing in systems and programs that protect people from infectious diseases, not dismantling them.

The funding being pulled back was meant to help state health departments fill gaps in resources and infrastructure that they identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, shoring up their biosecurity response. We know that public health security is national security. Cutting this Congressionally-appropriated funding means we’re going to be right back where we were five years ago, under prepared and vulnerable. 

Public health professionals are used to operating on a shoestring budget; these cuts just pulled out the laces. People across Maine and the U.S. are going to be more vulnerable as a result."

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Maine Public Health Association is dedicated to promoting the health of all people and places in Maine.