The Trump Administration’s funding shell game over the health program that treats 9/11 first responders with Ground Zero-related illnesses continued this weekend with a fresh round of layoffs — and New York’s Senate delegation is calling on their Republican colleagues to step up and save the program.
Friday’s mass layoffs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health became the latest blow to the World Trade Center Health Program, which is caught in a back-and-forth funding drama as Trump and Heath and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. take a buzzsaw to key health and research programs.
“We all know now that chaos has swirled for weeks regarding the World Trade Center program. We hear people are being fired then we hear they’re being restored,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said at a press event Sunday alongside Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
“The truth of it is, the administration, Donald Trump and RFK revealed their true intentions Friday night when they fired another 16 [staffers]. Not only did they not restore those who our Republican colleagues … promised were going to restore, but then they fired new people.”
Kennedy has moved to wipe out NIOSH, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with an April 1 wave of layoffs, and on Friday, nearly all of the remaining staff was let go. That included nurses, scientists, and other administrative staff at the World Trade Center Health Program, CBS reported.
Schumer and Gillibrand are calling on GOP legislators to use their votes on Trump’s budget to pressure the administration into restoring the program.
“What’s worse is of course the help that our first responders will not get. But almost as bad is the meanness, the cruelty to these employees who for years dedicated their lives to helping those who rushed to the towers and then they’re just told in an email when they get home Friday night, you’re fired. No explanation,” Schumer said.
Earlier this week, the Daily News reported that the health program has started resuming enrollment of new participants and approving treatments for ailing patients after on-again, off-again Trump administration cuts had hobbled the program for weeks.
A Department of Health and Human Services official informed doctors and administrators in the World Trade Center Health Program that all services could resume, according to an email obtained by The News.
That came after a front page Daily News scoop revealing that the status of the program’s director, Dr. James Howard, was left in limbo for weeks, and that new participants were not being enrolled in the program and treatment plans were not being approved. Last week, three FDNY employees were unable to get treatment plans approved for recent cancer diagnosis.
As of last week, Howard has been told by HHS officials that he is fully reinstated to his post and given authority to certify illnesses and approve treatment plans.
But Schumer said Sunday his status remains unclear.
“They’ve told him he’s gone by June 2, but they don’t know what his status is now, what he can do and cannot do,” Schumer said.
