SCHUMER: IN LETTER TO HHS SECRETARY KENNEDY, DEMANDS ANSWERS FOR BROKEN PROMISES TO 9/11 FAMILIES AND SURVIVORS AFTER AGAIN SLASHING KEY STAFF WHO SUPPORT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HEALTH PROGRAM
Trump Admin Announced HHS-Wide Layoffs, Cutting 10,000 Staff, Including Vital Support For The 9/11 Health Care Program That Helps Sick First Responders & Survivors Get Treatment For Cancer, Respiratory Illnesses, And More
This Is The Second Time The Trump Admin Has Slashed Support & Fired Staff Who Are Key For The World Trade Center Health Program, After Trump & Musk Also Sunk The Permanent Funding Fix Schumer Secured For Program Last Year
Schumer To Kennedy: Twice You Have Betrayed Your Promise To Protect The 9/11 Healthcare Program, Immediately Reverse This Cruel Decision
After the Trump administration again slashed resources for the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP), U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer yesterday demanded answers from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for his broken promises that he made to both the senator and 9/11 first responders and survivors to protect the program. WTCHP offers medical monitoring and treatment for first responders and survivors diagnosed with 9/11-related health conditions, including many types of cancers, respiratory illnesses, and more. The new cuts announced earlier this week include the dismissal of Dr. John Howard, the administrator of the WTCHP, and nearly all staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) who are essential to the daily work of the WTCHP, hobbling the work of the program.
“In our meeting prior to your confirmation as Secretary, you made an unequivocal commitment to working with me to strengthen this program. In your time in office you have fired staff not once, but twice, completely betraying what you said in our conversation and betraying the thousands of survivors of 9/11 who rely on the WTCHP for services,” Senator Schumer wrote in his letter.
This is the third time in four months President Trump has ripped away the vital resources from the program that allow it to continue serving 9/11 survivors’ health.
Schumer added, “9/11 first responders and survivors are suffering, they're getting cancers from the air they breathed when they ran to the towers to help protect us. Secretary Kennedy wants to cut healthcare off to these heroes? It’s un-American. These are our heroes. Secretary Kennedy and Donald Trump should not betray them and must reverse these cuts immediately.”
In December 2024, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand negotiated the inclusion of permanent federal funding for the WTCHP in a bipartisan health package. However, the federal funding was dropped at the last minute when President Trump & Elon Musk sunk the bipartisan spending agreement. Then, in February 2025, the Trump administration slashed the workforce of the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) as part of DOGE’s senseless cuts to the federal health system. In response, the senators worked together with a bipartisan group of House members, called on the administration to reverse the cuts. The Trump administration relented and appropriately re-hired WTCHP staff. Schumer said he is deeply worried about the future of the program given the Trump Administration's repeated indiscriminate cutting, and call on the HHS to immediately to reverse on the recent layoffs at NIOSH. The Administration is firing key employees who do the essential work to ensure 9/11 survivors receive the care they need, leaving this program in limbo as they have for months.
Schumer’s letter to Secretary Kennedy can be found HERE or below:
Dear Secretary,
I am writing with extreme concern and anger about your recent decision to lay off staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The reduction in force announcements at HHS yesterday are reckless and dangerous, are not based on any systematic review and will have profound negative consequences for the heroic survivors and first responders of 9/11 who are in need of health care due to illness developed as a result of their work in the days, weeks and months after that horrific attack on our nation.
I wrote to your office on February 17th, 2025 with concern about staff firings at the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP). While you ultimately and appropriately reinstated those employees, it was only after my public outcry as part of a bipartisan group of New York lawmakers. Additionally, your office did not respond to the letter I sent requesting more information, including a briefing, about the fate of the WTCHP and your plans to strengthen the program.
In our meeting prior to your confirmation as Secretary, you made an unequivocal commitment to working with me to strengthen this program. In your time in office you have fired staff not once, but twice, completely betraying what you said in our conversation and betraying the thousands of survivors of 9/11 who rely on the WTCHP for services.
This program is essential, providing critical screenings, services, research and medications to thousands of Americans - at zero cost - for 9/11-related health conditions and diseases. The regrettable actions that you have taken continue a pattern of callous decisions beginning in December 2024 when the incoming Trump Administration tanked the bipartisan health package that included permanent funding for the WTCHP. The repeated failure to fund this essential program and, now, the repeated firing of key employees at HHS demonstrates a lack of understanding of the importance of this program for our nation’s heroes. Worse, it demonstrates a disturbing lack of concern to take care of those who answered the nation’s call in a time of urgent need and now are suffering with illness because of it.
I ask for a response to this letter by Friday, April 4th. I call on you to promptly rehire the NIOSH staff essential to carrying out the WTCHP mission. I am also repeating my request for a briefing on the changes that have been made to the WTCHP and what plans you will take as Secretary to ensure the program can provide lifesaving care to current and future enrollees.
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