Target: Robert Kennedy, U.S. Secretary of Health
Goal: Push back against detrimental pause on grant funding for countless healthcare services.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims it has saved 160 billion dollars in government expenditures, far short of the trillions promised. The chainsaw approach is estimated to cost taxpayers roughly 135 billion dollars (on top of record levels of soaring government spending), but the long-term cost will be much higher. In an echo of the email controversy that saw billionaire Elon Musk demand a weekly list of accomplishments from all federal workers, DOGE has now directed a freeze on all health-related grant funds until recipients “prove” the merits of each and every expenditure. Every grant payment approval must also “advance the administration’s priorities.”
Recipients had already been promised these funds and use them to complete their work and to sustain healthcare operations. Because of the cumbersome and slow process involved in unfreezing the funds one by one, tens of thousands of healthcare nonprofits are in limbo….as are the often-critical services they provide, from medical research to medical assistance for families living in poverty. As an official at one affected organization, the National Institutes of Health, plainly put it: “The bottom line is no one is getting any money right now. But they don’t know they’re not getting any money because it just says that it’s ‘in transit.'” DOGE officials are also reportedly interfering in the process to make grants available to the public.
The continued politicization of healthcare will cost lives. Sign the petition below to demand the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services get its priorities straight.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Kennedy,
Health and human services: the mission is in the name. The continued withholding of previously approved grants and the wholesale interference in the grant securing process will – as one critic said –“strangle” the mission with “red tape.” Healthcare providers for the Administration for Children and Families cannot proceed with their mission to protect the vulnerable. Scientists from the National Institutes of Health cannot fulfill their mission to find treatments for the nation’s most devastating illnesses. And non-profits big and small across the country cannot honor their mission to care for the vulnerable. Nazi Germany experienced a “brain drain” when it forced its most brilliant minds to seek safer and more supportive pastures elsewhere. Don’t let the same fate befall the United States.
As the Secretary of Health, you must stand up for your mission and for the collective missions of all Americans who have dedicated their lives to making their fellow human beings healthier and safer. Help end the embargo on well-being.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Germanna CC
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