U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer has excoriated Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for laying off hundreds of employees who worked with survivors and first responders who experienced the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
Schumer, D-New York, the Senate minority leader, wrote a letter to Kennedy Tuesday, accusing him of breaking his commitment to strengthen the health programs in a meeting with senators in December before his confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary earlier this year.
"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)," Schumer wrote.
"The reduction in force announcements at HHS ... 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," Schumer opined.
How many layoffs from the World Trade Center Health Program?
Kennedy laid out plans to cut the department's workforce by an estimated 10,000 employees this year, including 873 from NIOSH.
Kennedy, acting with President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Elon Musk, had assigned layoff and buyouts in February to 20% of the probationary employees at the World Trade Center Health Program. Schumer and other officials, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, demanded Kennedy retract the layoffs.
Both NIOSH and the World Trade Center Health Program fall under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"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," Schumer wrote.
Schumer wrote that Kennedy's management of the department, along with DOGE, has been haphazard.
"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," Schumer wrote.
Read the letter here.
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, April 3, ripped into the Trump administration’s elimination of critical staff for the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP), which provides medical treatment for 9/11 survivors, first responders, and others affected by the attacks.
"The Trump administration’s decision to continuously jeopardize the World Trade Center Health Program is a cruel betrayal of our heroes. These cuts must be reversed, and the World Trade Center Health Program must be protected," James said in a statement.
What to know about NIOSH, World Trade Center Health program
NIOSH was created by Congressin 1970to study worker safety and health. Workplaces often turn to the agency to investigate outbreaks and injuries, like after thedeadly fungal outbreakthat shuttered a Michigan paper mill in 2023.
NIOSH's teams oversee several programs authorized by Congress that are expected to be impacted by federal cuts, ranging from anational registryto studycancer rates in firefighterstoa programtomonitor and treatpeople sickenedduring the rescueand cleanup of theSeptember 11th terror attacks.
Schumer wrote that the NIOSH "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," Schumer wrote.
Created in 2011, the WTCHP provides medical treatment for more than 132,000 people impacted by the attacks.
What is DOGE and when was it created?
Trump appointed Musk to cut wasteful spending and the size of government programs and departments under DOGE, an agency Trump established by executive order when he took office on Jan. 20.
DOGE and Musk — backed by Trump and most Republicans in the federal government — has become the focus of controversy as thousands of people have been laid off, departments decimated, and purportedly billions of dollars have been slashed. Critics have claimed Musk and DOGE have not justified the supposed cuts with financial evidence.
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com Twitter: @lohudlegalRead more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
