Maine officials are assessing the impact on state programs after the federal government slashed more than $11 billion nationwide in public health initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

An additional $1 billion is being cut from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

It was unclear on Thursday exactly how the cutbacks would affect Maine, but Lindsay Hammes, spokesperson for the Maine DHHS and the Maine CDC, said $91 million in grants supporting dozens of contracts statewide were impacted by the cuts.

“On March 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began notifying Maine DHHS that certain federally funded grants supporting important public and behavioral health work have been terminated without notice, effective immediately,” Hammes said in a written statement Thursday. “Maine DHHS continues to review contracts impacted by the termination of these federal grants and assess the broader implications of the funding cuts.”

Matt Wellington, associate director of the Maine Public Health Association, called the cuts “shortsighted” and argued that they “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,” Wellington said in a prepared statement.

The funding was approved during the pandemic but supports broader disease prevention and public health programs.

Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. DHHS, said in a statement that the “pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

The U.S. DHHS also announced 10,000 layoffs within the federal health agency on Thursday, including more than 1,000 layoffs at the National Institutes of Health. Including early retirements, the overall federal health workforce would shrink from 82,000 to 62,000, with cuts also coming to the U.S. CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.

Wellington said “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.”

Wellington said in an interview that the funding that’s now being taken way was “mostly about shoring up our public health infrastructure so we could better protect people in Maine.

“We will see a lot of impacts on our ability to track and manage disease outbreaks,” Wellington said.

The New York Times reported that state health departments began receiving notices this week that funds allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic were being axed.

“No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds,” according to the notices sent to states.

THOUSANDS OF LAYOFFS EXPECTED

Some states prepared to lay off epidemiologists and data scientists, the Times reported. Thousands of layoffs at state and local health agencies are expected across the nation.

The cuts also could have trickle down effects on local health agencies.

In Portland, which has one of the two city-run health departments in Maine, “it is likely we will be affected, as most of the funding we receive from the Maine CDC is federal pass-through,” city spokesperson Jessica Grondin said.

In February, a U.S. CDC worker who had been working for Portland’s health department, was laid off by the Trump administration.