McHenry County loses $600K federal health grant in Trump administration cuts

The McHenry County Department of Health has lost a federal grant that helped track and respond to respiratory illness outbreaks.

The department’s $600,000 respiratory surveillance and outbreak response grant was cut off when President Donald Trump’s administration moved to terminate certain federal health funding as part of his government streamlining efforts.

Statewide, the federal government pulled back grants that had already been awarded totaling $125 million in funding for the state and 97 local public health departments for prevention and control of emerging diseases, according to a March 27 news release from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The impact of the cuts on McHenry County includes the funding to monitor and respond to respiratory illnesses. That grant was supposed to run from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026, but the department was notified at the end of March of its termination, according to documents received by the Northwest Herald under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The McHenry County Department of Health had received an alert from the State of Illinois Rapid Electronic Notification emergency response alert system on March 26 about the funding cuts.

Melissa Adamson, the health department’s public health administrator, emailed an IDPH regional health officer and asked if the state was sending details about which specific grants would be affected by the broader cuts.

In an email dated March 28 notifying the health department of the funding cuts, IDPH officials said the respiratory surveillance grant was affected, and the agency wasn’t certain of the full impact of the cuts on public health operations.

“IDPH has requested guidance from [Health and Human Services] on reimbursement for work completed prior to the notice of termination. We are also working with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to determine whether it is possible for IDPH to challenge this action by the Trump Administration,“ according to the email.

“At this time,” according tothe email, “due to the uncertainty of the future availability of these federal grant funds, we are alerting you that federal funding and related service reductions are likely. We do not know what the full impact to your agency is currently and are working as quickly as possible to mitigate the impact of this decision. We know this presents great uncertainty; we are trying to be as transparent as possible even as we try to navigate these unprecedented times.”

The health department got $150,000 upfront from the grant, which did not create any positions. Three general fund jobs were offset by the grant at 50%, according to those documents.

The grant covered surveillance, investigation, control and reporting respiratory illness outbreaks, but the health department still will have to undertake such work regardless of the grant. Funds also helped with “onsite infection prevention education in high-risk congregate settings,” according to those documents. It also gave support for educating the public on preventing respiratory illness.

The health department still will help long-term care facilities with outbreak management, whether or not the grant is there, officials have indicated.

The department had expenses of about $106,700 covered by the grant in July through December 2024 and about $60,000 of estimated covered expenses in January through March 2025. There is projected $113,637 in expenses for April through November, according to the FOIA documents.

One of the documents outlines a plan for revenue loss for the coming months, but details were redacted. The department hasn’t gotten any information about when, how or how much it would have to pay back money from the federal grant that’s already been used.

After the county health department was notified by the IDPH of the grant’s termination, Adamson forwarded the to several staff members telling them there will be a meeting in the coming week.

Leslie Schott, who works as a communicable disease coordinator for the department, wrote back saying: “This is very unfortunate, but we will put a pause on all projects associated with this grant at this time.”