Kowtowing to bipartisan political pressure, President Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. have reinstated the head of the World Trade Center Health Program — yet 16 members of the pivotal program for 9/11 first responders and survivors still face the chopping block, legislators and advocates said.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Long Island) announced Saturday that HHS had reversed its decision to terminate John Howard as it planned to lay off two-thirds of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health staffers.
Howard oversees the World Trade Center Health Program and certifies health conditions for 9/11 first responders and survivors. His departure would have brought the program to a virtual halt, advocates said.
Garbarino and other New York legislators immediately reached out to the White House, demanding Dr. Howard’s reinstatement.
Dr. Howard was brought back into the fold Friday, advocates said.
“The firing of Dr. Howard and the subsequent impact on the World Trade Center Health Program was an unfortunate mistake, and we are deeply grateful for HHS’s swift action to reinstate him as Administrator of this critical program,” Garbarino said in a statement Saturday. “The Administration’s continued support of the program is encouraging, and we look forward to working together to address any remaining issues.”
According to an email seen by the Daily News, WTC Health Care Program officials paused all enrollment and certification letters in Howard’s absence as they figured out who was responsible for certifying applications and conditions.
Dr. Howard may be saved, but HHC gave 16 of the program’s 86 staff members pink slips, informing them that their positions would be terminated, advocates said. The staffers are from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Morgantown, W. Va.
The layoffs of WTC Health Care Program staffers was first reported by Newsday.
With the exception now of Dr. Howard, HHS has repeatedly said no members of the WTC Health Program would be terminated.
“[We] want to thank Congressman Garbarino and the New York Republican members of Congress for working to convince the Trump administration to reinstate Dr. Howard. They know that it is critical that Dr. Howard be able to continue his work on behalf of the 137,000 9/11 responders and survivors,” said Ben Chevet, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act. “We know that Congressman Garbarino has been working furiously since it was disclosed that Dr. Howard had been removed to get this reversed. While their announcement is good news and we are grateful for it, this is only the first step.
“Program members, 9/11 responders and survivors are facing immediate and real denial of care because of the Trump administration’s actions despite Secretary Kennedy’s assertions that his ‘reorganization’ is not impacting services,” Chevet said. “That is a lie.”
Kennedy told ABC News on Thursday that studies and staff that were cut this past week but that should not have been cut will be reinstated.
On Friday, legislators on both sides of the aisle, outraged over the drastic cuts, fired off a letter to President Trump and Kennedy demanding that the services be restored.
Tens of thousands of responders and survivors rely on the WTC Health Program to get treatment and medication and monitor injuries and illnesses caused by the toxins that swirled around Ground Zero during 9/11 and the weeks that followed.
Drastic cuts to the 9/11 program were reversed earlier this year after Republican lawmakers sounded the alarm. The rare reversal from Trump in February saw him restore two research grants and the jobs of 16 employees.
The program was also threatened under the previous Trump administration. In 2018, the White House proposed reshuffling the agency to put it under the purview of just the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s estimated that more than 400,000 people were affected by the toxins swirling over Ground Zero. More than 127,000 people have been enrolled in the WTC Health Program.
Of that number, more than 81,000 have a certified 9/11 illness from their exposure during and after the terror attack on the World Trade Center, as well as the hijacked plane crashes in Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, according to the program’s website.
