Tuesday,
February 18, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 25
by Nancy Cutler
Just before his confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to help 9/11 responders and survivors, two U.S. senators from New York said Tuesday. But a day after he got the job, the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cut jobs at the World Trade Center Health Program.
Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are now demanding Kennedy reverse “the rash and counterproductive terminations” and ensure ongoing healthcare for “those who answered the call on 9/11 and are now sick with respiratory ailments, cancer and other conditions.”
Up to 20% of staff at the WTC Health Program were impacted by cuts of probationary workers and buyouts. HHS oversees the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which houses the WTC program.
The impact is exacerbated, elected officials and fired workers say, by DOGE cuts to scientific research and last year’s scrapping of permanent funding for the WTC program by Congress.
“These cuts are going to impact member care directly,” said Anthony Gardner, one of the WTC program staff who was notified via email on Saturday, that he’d lost his job. “For some of these members these delays are going to be life and death.”
HHS and CDC did not immediately return requests for comment. USA TODAY has also reached out to the White House requesting comment.
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, whose Hudson Valley district is home to many 9/11 responders, said on Monday he was talking with the Trump administration about the cuts.
“I am aware of the serious concerns pertaining to the WTC (Health Program) and have been working through the weekend with the White House to reverse the decision and ensure there are no impacts on providing care to our brave 9/11 heroes,” said Lawler, a Republican whose 17th District includes New York City’s suburbs in the lower Hudson Valley. “There is nothing more important to me than fighting for our first responders and I won’t stop until this is rectified.”
The health program was established as part of the 2011 James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Dozens of health impacts have been found among those exposed to the toxic swirl around ground zero on and in the months after Sept. 11, 2001.
The union representing approximately 20,000 active and retired New York City firefighters cite statements by Musk and the Trump administration that if mistakes happen during the DOGE cuts, they’ll correct them.
“This is a mistake that needs to be corrected, and corrected quickly,” Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, told USA TODAY. “No one has ever accused the World Trade Center Health Program of being run inefficiently, and no one has ever questioned the need for America to fund the health care program that helps the first responders, rescue workers and civilians.”
