photo by: Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly joined Republican Sen. Bill Clifford of Garden City to urge residents of southwest Kansas, especially children, to be vaccinated for measles amid spread of the virus to eight counties. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has confirmed 37 cases of measles, but the total could be higher.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has eliminated 56 positions as the result of a loss of federal funds that were cut by the Trump Administration, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced Thursday.

Many of the positions are related to KDHE’s mission of stopping the spread of disease outbreaks, and come at a time when the state is monitoring an outbreak of measles and tuberculosis.

“The Trump administration’s abrupt and unilateral funding cuts will have severe and immediate consequences for the health, safety, and quality of life of Kansans across the state, especially in rural areas,” Kelly, a Democrat, said in a release.

The press release didn’t specify the exact positions cut, but identified them as “vital health posts,” and said many of the funds that the Trump administration cut were related to strengthening the state’s “epidemiology and laboratory work, monitor and respond to disease outbreak, administer critical programs that provide vaccines for children, and address health disparities for underserved communities and rural Kansans.” Some of the positions were related to mental health care programs, the release said.

The state received notice on March 25 that six grants totaling $33 million had been immediately discontinued. In addition to the grants for KDHE, the eliminated grants included funds for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.

Kelly said she asked Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach to file a suit on behalf of Kansas seeking to have the eliminated federal grants restored. Kobach, however, declined to bring forward a suit, Kelly said in the press release.

Kelly said the loss of the 56 positions — the release didn’t specify if all the positions were filled or if any of the employees were offered other jobs in state government– represented the “first large-scale state employment dismissal initiated by the Trump administration’s cuts to congressionally authorized funds.”