‘Very chaotic’: Local health officials in ‘turmoil’ after $117M in funding cuts

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Local public health authorities are still figuring out the next steps in the wake of federal health cuts from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Nearly $117 million in COVID-era grants and funding are set to go away. But these are grants that departments were expecting to have for at least another year, and they were practically given no notice. The Oregon Health Authority has already warned the 988 Crisis Line and some immunization grants could be impacted.

Sarah Lochner, the executive director of the Coalition of Local Health Officials said the lack of notice and details have been extra challenging.

“It has thrown everyone into turmoil just trying to figure out one, scrambling for the funds, scrambling to understand the impacts, and then the next step is, ‘What do we do now?’” she said. “So, it’s been very chaotic and a roller coaster of emotions for sure.”
 
Lochner said it is high stakes and feels like they have been thrown into a tornado. And counties and public health departments are in a punch because they are losing money they were still supposed to have.

“They either have to scramble to find the money in a cut budget cycle, to keep these positions whole and to keep doing the work, or they have to discontinue the work and potentially lay people off or cut people’s hours,” she said.
 
Lochner said a lot of the work public health departments do is invisible to the average person. But the cuts can have an impact on people’s lives one way or another.
 
“What you are going to see is your kids perhaps getting more cases of the flu or, you know, coming home from school sick more often,” she said. And it’s really not what they won’t see, it’s the impacts that they will feel and they won’t really necessarily understand that they are.”
 
As for what is next, public health departments do not even have all the answers yet.
 
“We’re still sorting through the impacts of these cuts, to be honest, because the directives that came down from the federal government were very confusing and really unclear,” Lochner said. “So every county is sort of sorting through what this means for them. And I am collecting that information.”
 
Lochner said CLHO is hoping the Oregon legislature will be even more compelled to invest in public health. She also encourages anyone who is concerned about what the cuts could mean for them to reach out to their state lawmakers and ask for increased public health funding.