Latest news with #FireFighterFatalityInvestigationandPreventionProgram
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr., DOGE gutted legally required offices. Courts may undo it all.
The Trump administration's purge of the health department is cutting so deep that it has incapacitated congressionally mandated programs and triggered legal challenges. The administration insists the cuts are a lawful 'streamlining' of a 'bloated' agency, but federal workers, Democratic lawmakers, state officials and independent legal experts say keeping offices afloat in name only – with minimal or no staff – is an unconstitutional power grab. While agencies have some discretion over how to fulfill Congress's demands, the upheaval inside the Department of Health and Human Services has claimed a host of programs the agency is required by Congress to maintain — cuts that are especially vulnerable to lawsuits and could upend Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s goal of slimming down a workforce he has repeatedly said is rife with waste, fraud and abuse. A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sweeping layoffs at several agencies, including HHS, saying that cooperation of the legislative branch is required for large-scale reorganizations. Kennedy eliminated thousands of jobs in early April, paralyzing programs across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and particularly in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, that monitored health threats, researched cures and investigated everything from toxic fumes in fire stations to outbreaks of gonorrhea. The layoffs at NIOSH have halted the National Firefighter Cancer Registry, Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Health Hazard Evaluation Program, Respirator Approval Program and Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program. All are required by law, but their government websites explain they are no longer operating because of the layoffs. 'If the law requires you, the executive, to do this work, you have, in a back door way, thumbed your nose at Congress by firing the people who are actually necessary to get that work done,' said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, whose mission is supporting the federal workforce. 'The executive branch is supposed to execute — the name says it all. It doesn't have the right to determine where money is spent and how much money is spent. ' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO that "critical initiatives under NIOSH will remain intact." "The Trump Administration is committed to taking care of coal miners and firefighters, who play a vital role in supporting this nation," Nixon said. "HHS remains fully committed to supporting American families and delivering critical services as part of its reorganization to better serve the nation's health." The CDC was aware, however, that the moves could be legally problematic. In early April, Trump's Department of Government Efficiency team — which pushed federal agencies across the government to slash their workforce by thousands — flagged to the agency's leadership that many programs on the chopping block were mandated by Congress, and that cutting them posed a 'litigation risk,' according to a memo sent to CDC and viewed by POLITICO. And while the administration has pledged that 'essential services…will remain fully intact and uninterrupted,' and have repeatedly claimed that core programs will transfer to the yet-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, interviews with staff and public notices on the CDC's website show that the programs are no longer operational. 'The idea that you can have a program with no people in it and no money in it, and that somehow, then you have not eliminated it — that's just smoke and mirrors,' a high-level CDC official, granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, told POLITICO. 'AHA, apparently, is where programs go to die.' The 'confidential' DOGE memo, lists 'statutory minimum requirements' for several CDC offices, including NIOSH, and details which programs are mandated by Congress and for which the health secretary has discretion. Some workplace health and safety programs, DOGE stressed, only have to be maintained 'to the extent feasible.' 'We could argue this delegation is no longer feasible,' the document says. 'But there is a significant risk that a court would disagree.' Days after the memo was sent, the Trump administration eliminated most or all of the staff running several programs mandated by Congress, bringing their work to a halt. Some employees were brought back in early May, but told their jobs would be gone again in the coming months. The budget request the White House sent Congress on May 2 proposed slashing more than a quarter of HHS' budget, a reduction of tens of billions of dollars, while allocating $500 million to the new 'AHA' office that Kennedy said will take over many of the programs impacted by cuts. The budget also urges Congress to get rid of 'duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary programs,' including the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control — which the DOGE memo said the department is legally required to maintain. Some congressionally mandated programs saw their entire staff dismissed, including the firefighter cancer registry that was created by legislation President Donald Trump signed in his first term. Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840, said she and every other member of the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer team received notices that their jobs would be eliminated this summer. The cancer registry, along with NIOSH's Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Health Hazard Evaluation Program, Respirator Approval Program and Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, all state on their government websites that they are no longer operating because of the layoffs. 'I don't know how they're planning on actually doing … a meaningful scientific study, like it's supposed to be, if there aren't any scientists to work on that study,' Niemeier-Walsh said. Other programs lost most but not all of their staff, but federal workers said those layoffs have left those who remain unable to do their work. An official in NIOSH's National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, granted anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said all but seven of the more than 75 workers in that office were given layoff notices, rendering it 'no longer functioning.' A notice on the lab's website reads: 'Due to the reduction in force across NIOSH, no new respirator approval applications can be accepted.' The official warned that the cuts have not only wiped out their ability to test and certify new types of respirators — as required by Congress since 2001 — but also to inspect the thousands of breathing masks the lab already approved. The official predicted this will lead to an influx of shoddy or counterfeit respirators and the loss of the public's trust in NIOSH's certification. Beyond the laws requiring these programs exist, there are federal laws that require workers wear NIOSH-approved protective gear, including health care workers who use filtering facepiece respirators and firefighters who use self-contained breathing apparatuses. Stier, an attorney, believes these Trump administration cuts go 'beyond their legal institutional authority.' But stopping the layoffs and preventing new ones 'really requires the courts to do their jobs, and Congress, to stand up to an executive invading their prerogatives,' he said. The American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump administration over the cuts along with other unions representing federal workers and local government officials. They argued last week that 'only Congress has the power to change the federal government in the ways the President has directed.' Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco agreed, noting in her Friday ruling, which blocked Trump's executive order, that while the President may reorganize the executive branch, "he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch.' The Department of Justice appealed the ruling and the next hearing is scheduled for May 22. Nearly two-dozen Democratic state attorneys general have also sued over the 'evisceration of the Department's statutorily mandated work promoting public health' in a Rhode Island federal court. Their complaint points in particular to cuts that have shuttered the CDC's Atlanta-based lab that analyzes samples of sexually transmitted infections from around the country, citing a notice the agency posted on April 11 listing nearly 100 kinds of tests that are 'no longer performed at CDC' — including those for gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis. Some lawmakers, including those who drafted the legislation that created and funded the now-gutted programs, are also pushing back. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sponsored the 1992 bill that created the CDC's Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance System when he served in the House. Every employee working on the program, which tracks the safety and success rates of every fertility clinic in the country, was put on administrative leave in April and told they would lose their jobs this summer. 'Congress has the power of the purse,' Wyden said. 'This law has been on the books — I've watched it carefully over the years … It is stunning that somebody would call himself essentially Mr. Fertilization and then walk back [this] program,' he added, referencing Trump's campaign statements in support of IVF. Wyden joined with a dozen Democratic colleagues on a letter to Kennedy on Thursday demanding answers by May 16 to several question about cuts to the CDC team, including the justification for each worker's termination, whether and when they will be reinstated, whether Elon Musk was involved in the decision to cut the team, and what will happen to the data IVF clinics continue to submit to the now-shuttered office. Some Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, are also telling administration officials and the public that they oppose the cuts, casting them as harmful to their constituents and a violation of Congress' power. But other lawmakers, while expressing fear about the impact of the layoffs on workers in their states, said they trust the president to make things right without Congress' involvement. West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice told POLITICO that he's 'concerned' but not 'super nervous' about the layoffs in NIOSH's Morgantown office that have hampered the congressionally-mandated program which has screened coal miners for black lung disease for more than 50 years. 'There is just plain no way that Donald Trump is going to do something to endanger the health of our coal miners — especially at the same time that we're asking more of them,' he said, citing Trump's call to increase domestic coal production. 'Even if the jobs left us, which we don't want to believe, I do believe they're going to be merged into another organization. It may look a little different, but it will serve the purpose.'
Politico
11-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
Trump transforms congressionally mandated health offices into ghost towns
The Trump administration's purge of the health department is cutting so deep that it has incapacitated congressionally mandated programs and triggered legal challenges. The administration insists the cuts are a lawful 'streamlining' of a 'bloated' agency, but federal workers, Democratic lawmakers, state officials and independent legal experts say keeping offices afloat in name only – with minimal or no staff – is an unconstitutional power grab. While agencies have some discretion over how to fulfill Congress's demands, the upheaval inside the Department of Health and Human Services has claimed a host of programs the agency is required by Congress to maintain — cuts that are especially vulnerable to lawsuits and could upend Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s goal of slimming down a workforce he has repeatedly said is rife with waste, fraud and abuse. A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sweeping layoffs at several agencies, including HHS, saying that cooperation of the legislative branch is required for large-scale reorganizations. Kennedy eliminated thousands of jobs in early April, paralyzing programs across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and particularly in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, that monitored health threats, researched cures and investigated everything from toxic fumes in fire stations to outbreaks of gonorrhea. The layoffs at NIOSH have halted the National Firefighter Cancer Registry, Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Health Hazard Evaluation Program, Respirator Approval Program and Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program. All are required by law, but their government websites explain they are no longer operating because of the layoffs. 'If the law requires you, the executive, to do this work, you have, in a back door way, thumbed your nose at Congress by firing the people who are actually necessary to get that work done,' said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, whose mission is supporting the federal workforce. 'The executive branch is supposed to execute — the name says it all. It doesn't have the right to determine where money is spent and how much money is spent. ' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO that 'critical initiatives under NIOSH will remain intact.' 'The Trump Administration is committed to taking care of coal miners and firefighters, who play a vital role in supporting this nation,' Nixon said. 'HHS remains fully committed to supporting American families and delivering critical services as part of its reorganization to better serve the nation's health.' The CDC was aware, however, that the moves could be legally problematic. In early April, Trump's Department of Government Efficiency team — which pushed federal agencies across the government to slash their workforce by thousands — flagged to the agency's leadership that many programs on the chopping block were mandated by Congress, and that cutting them posed a 'litigation risk,' according to a memo sent to CDC and viewed by POLITICO. And while the administration has pledged that 'essential services…will remain fully intact and uninterrupted,' and have repeatedly claimed that core programs will transfer to the yet-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, interviews with staff and public notices on the CDC's website show that the programs are no longer operational. 'The idea that you can have a program with no people in it and no money in it, and that somehow, then you have not eliminated it — that's just smoke and mirrors,' a high-level CDC official, granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, told POLITICO. 'AHA, apparently, is where programs go to die.' The 'confidential' DOGE memo, lists 'statutory minimum requirements' for several CDC offices, including NIOSH, and details which programs are mandated by Congress and for which the health secretary has discretion. Some workplace health and safety programs, DOGE stressed, only have to be maintained 'to the extent feasible.' 'We could argue this delegation is no longer feasible,' the document says. 'But there is a significant risk that a court would disagree.' Days after the memo was sent, the Trump administration eliminated most or all of the staff running several programs mandated by Congress, bringing their work to a halt. Some employees were brought back in early May, but told their jobs would be gone again in the coming months. The budget request the White House sent Congress on May 2 proposed slashing more than a quarter of HHS' budget, a reduction of tens of billions of dollars, while allocating $500 million to the new 'AHA' office that Kennedy said will take over many of the programs impacted by cuts. The budget also urges Congress to get rid of 'duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary programs,' including the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control — which the DOGE memo said the department is legally required to maintain. Some congressionally mandated programs saw their entire staff dismissed, including the firefighter cancer registry that was created by legislation President Donald Trump signed in his first term. Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840, said she and every other member of the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer team received notices that their jobs would be eliminated this summer. The cancer registry, along with NIOSH's Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Health Hazard Evaluation Program, Respirator Approval Program and Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, all state on their government websites that they are no longer operating because of the layoffs. 'I don't know how they're planning on actually doing … a meaningful scientific study, like it's supposed to be, if there aren't any scientists to work on that study,' Niemeier-Walsh said. Other programs lost most but not all of their staff, but federal workers said those layoffs have left those who remain unable to do their work. An official in NIOSH's National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, granted anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said all but seven of the more than 75 workers in that office were given layoff notices, rendering it 'no longer functioning.' A notice on the lab's website reads: 'Due to the reduction in force across NIOSH, no new respirator approval applications can be accepted.' The official warned that the cuts have not only wiped out their ability to test and certify new types of respirators — as required by Congress since 2001 — but also to inspect the thousands of breathing masks the lab already approved. The official predicted this will lead to an influx of shoddy or counterfeit respirators and the loss of the public's trust in NIOSH's certification. Beyond the laws requiring these programs exist, there are federal laws that require workers wear NIOSH-approved protective gear, including health care workers who use filtering facepiece respirators and firefighters who use self-contained breathing apparatuses. Stier, an attorney, believes these Trump administration cuts go 'beyond their legal institutional authority.' But stopping the layoffs and preventing new ones 'really requires the courts to do their jobs, and Congress, to stand up to an executive invading their prerogatives,' he said. The American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump administration over the cuts along with other unions representing federal workers and local government officials. They argued last week that 'only Congress has the power to change the federal government in the ways the President has directed.' Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco agreed, noting in her Friday ruling, which blocked Trump's executive order, that while the President may reorganize the executive branch, 'he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch.' The Department of Justice appealed the ruling and the next hearing is scheduled for May 22. Nearly two-dozen Democratic state attorneys general have also sued over the 'evisceration of the Department's statutorily mandated work promoting public health' in a Rhode Island federal court. Their complaint points in particular to cuts that have shuttered the CDC's Atlanta-based lab that analyzes samples of sexually transmitted infections from around the country, citing a notice the agency posted on April 11 listing nearly 100 kinds of tests that are 'no longer performed at CDC' — including those for gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis. Some lawmakers, including those who drafted the legislation that created and funded the now-gutted programs, are also pushing back. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sponsored the 1992 bill that created the CDC's Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance System when he served in the House. Every employee working on the program, which tracks the safety and success rates of every fertility clinic in the country, was put on administrative leave in April and told they would lose their jobs this summer. 'Congress has the power of the purse,' Wyden said. 'This law has been on the books — I've watched it carefully over the years … It is stunning that somebody would call himself essentially Mr. Fertilization and then walk back [this] program,' he added, referencing Trump's campaign statements in support of IVF. Wyden joined with a dozen Democratic colleagues on a letter to Kennedy on Thursday demanding answers by May 16 to several question about cuts to the CDC team, including the justification for each worker's termination, whether and when they will be reinstated, whether Elon Musk was involved in the decision to cut the team, and what will happen to the data IVF clinics continue to submit to the now-shuttered office. Some Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, are also telling administration officials and the public that they oppose the cuts, casting them as harmful to their constituents and a violation of Congress' power. But other lawmakers, while expressing fear about the impact of the layoffs on workers in their states, said they trust the president to make things right without Congress' involvement. West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice told POLITICO that he's 'concerned' but not 'super nervous' about the layoffs in NIOSH's Morgantown office that have hampered the congressionally-mandated program which has screened coal miners for black lung disease for more than 50 years. 'There is just plain no way that Donald Trump is going to do something to endanger the health of our coal miners — especially at the same time that we're asking more of them,' he said, citing Trump's call to increase domestic coal production. 'Even if the jobs left us, which we don't want to believe, I do believe they're going to be merged into another organization. It may look a little different, but it will serve the purpose.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump admin asks laid-off firefighter and coal mining safety research staff back temporarily
The Trump administration is calling back to work some laid off federal employees who focused on the health and safety of coal miners, firefighters, and survivors of 9/11, a Republican senator and a national union of firefighters said Tuesday. But the reprieve may be temporary, lasting only through June 2, and the future of the programs, which are part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, remains in doubt. An HHS spokesperson said, 'it could be a possibility that [certain NIOSH employees] will be brought back permanently.' NIOSH was one of several agencies gutted this month when tens of thousands of employees were laid off as part of a sweeping reorganization of the federal health department. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said shortly after the mass firings that as much as 20 percent of employees might be brought back 'because we all make mistakes.' And on Sunday, Kennedy signaled that the administration may be rethinking some cuts in a post on X, writing: 'Firefighter health and safety programs remain a top priority … As the agency continues to streamline its operations, critical services of NIOSH will remain intact.' HHS has also brought back laid off food safety inspectors. Two NIOSH employees — one recently called back from administrative leave, the other whose job was not impacted by the cuts — told POLITICO that human resources called the workers this week and asked them to come back to 'close out' the work they had been doing. That includes teams tracking cancer rates in firefighters and providing health services to survivors of 9/11. But the employees stressed that nothing official is in writing. Both employees were granted anonymity for fear of retribution. 'Everyone is very suspicious that this is just being done to create the appearance that HHS is addressing concerns,' said one of the employees. 'But programs will still be effectively eliminated in June.' A third NIOSH employee, also granted anonymity for fear of retribution, said the office focused on health and safety in the coal industry 'was told to stop using [administrative] leave and come into the office, but their termination dates are still the same,' adding that similar directives were sent to some employees who work on the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. The news follows weeks of bipartisan criticism about the Trump administration purging tens of thousands of staff from the CDC, NIOSH and other health agencies, which has brought several programs dedicated to worker-safety research to a halt. The International Association of Fire Fighters took credit for the reversal in a statement Tuesday, saying the administration's decision to restore some employees comes after 'direct talks' between the union and Kennedy. IAFF President Edward A. Kelly said in a statement that Kennedy blamed unnamed federal workers for making the cuts and claimed the core functions of teams working on firefighter health and safety would remain intact. 'It was explained to me that the Reduction in Force (RIF) ordered by a White House Executive Order was misinterpreted by 'mid-level bureaucrats,' and our programs — which Secretary Kennedy assured me were 'critical' — would continue,' he wrote. But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( who represents workers at NIOSH's Morgantown office who were laid off en masse on April 1, told POLITICO on Tuesday that she's concerned the gutted programs won't be permanently restored. 'They did call some people back, which we're very pleased about,' she said. 'But in terms of the technicalities of permanent [reduction in force], I think that still does loom out there.' Capito said she has met with Kennedy several times to express opposition to the layoffs, and is 'going to keep pushing' until the workers are permanently rehired. 'The cuts to NIOSH, on Black Lung in particular, were very concerning to me, because nobody else does this,' she said of the research and treatment the agency provides to sick coal miners, describing herself as 'cautiously optimistic' that the temporary recall will stretch past the scheduled June cutoff. American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430 President Cathy Tinney-Zara noted in a statement that the "reinstatement does not include all impacted employees," but appears to target "programs currently in the media spotlight." "These are undoubtedly vital initiatives, but they are only a portion of the comprehensive, nationwide worker protection mission NIOSH fulfills," Tinney-Zara said.
Politico
29-04-2025
- Health
- Politico
Trump admin asks laid-off firefighter and coal mining safety research staff back temporarily
The Trump administration is calling back to work some laid off federal employees who focused on the health and safety of coal miners, firefighters, and survivors of 9/11, a Republican senator and a national union of firefighters said Tuesday. But the reprieve may be temporary, lasting only through June 2, and the future of the programs, which are part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, remains in doubt. An HHS spokesperson said, 'it could be a possibility that [certain NIOSH employees] will be brought back permanently.' NIOSH was one of several agencies gutted this month when tens of thousands of employees were laid off as part of a sweeping reorganization of the federal health department. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said shortly after the mass firings that as much as 20 percent of employees might be brought back 'because we all make mistakes.' And on Sunday, Kennedy signaled that the administration may be rethinking some cuts in a post on X, writing: 'Firefighter health and safety programs remain a top priority … As the agency continues to streamline its operations, critical services of NIOSH will remain intact.' HHS has also brought back laid off food safety inspectors . Two NIOSH employees — one recently called back from administrative leave, the other whose job was not impacted by the cuts — told POLITICO that human resources called the workers this week and asked them to come back to 'close out' the work they had been doing. That includes teams tracking cancer rates in firefighters and providing health services to survivors of 9/11. But the employees stressed that nothing official is in writing. Both employees were granted anonymity for fear of retribution. 'Everyone is very suspicious that this is just being done to create the appearance that HHS is addressing concerns,' said one of the employees. 'But programs will still be effectively eliminated in June.' A third NIOSH employee, also granted anonymity for fear of retribution, said the office focused on health and safety in the coal industry 'was told to stop using [administrative] leave and come into the office, but their termination dates are still the same,' adding that similar directives were sent to some employees who work on the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. The news follows weeks of bipartisan criticism about the Trump administration purging tens of thousands of staff from the CDC, NIOSH and other health agencies, which has brought several programs dedicated to worker-safety research to a halt. The International Association of Fire Fighters took credit for the reversal in a statement Tuesday, saying the administration's decision to restore some employees comes after 'direct talks' between the union and Kennedy. IAFF President Edward A. Kelly said in a statement that Kennedy blamed unnamed federal workers for making the cuts and claimed the core functions of teams working on firefighter health and safety would remain intact. 'It was explained to me that the Reduction in Force (RIF) ordered by a White House Executive Order was misinterpreted by 'mid-level bureaucrats,' and our programs — which Secretary Kennedy assured me were 'critical' — would continue,' he wrote. But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( who represents workers at NIOSH's Morgantown office who were laid off en masse on April 1, told POLITICO on Tuesday that she's concerned the gutted programs won't be permanently restored . 'They did call some people back, which we're very pleased about,' she said. 'But in terms of the technicalities of permanent [reduction in force], I think that still does loom out there.' Capito said she has met with Kennedy several times to express opposition to the layoffs, and is 'going to keep pushing' until the workers are permanently rehired. 'The cuts to NIOSH, on Black Lung in particular, were very concerning to me, because nobody else does this,' she said of the research and treatment the agency provides to sick coal miners, describing herself as 'cautiously optimistic' that the temporary recall will stretch past the scheduled June cutoff. American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430 President Cathy Tinney-Zara noted in a statement that the 'reinstatement does not include all impacted employees,' but appears to target 'programs currently in the media spotlight.' 'These are undoubtedly vital initiatives, but they are only a portion of the comprehensive, nationwide worker protection mission NIOSH fulfills,' Tinney-Zara said.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘A gut punch': Trump admin cuts wipe out firefighter health and safety programs
A 10-person team of federal health workers was helping Iowa firefighters limit their exposure to fumes from idling vehicles when news broke earlier this month that all but one team member had been fired. The Cincinnati-based team of scientists traveled to Iowa last August after three fire stations requested their help out of concern that their workers were being exposed to diesel exhaust. They were preparing for a follow-up visit this summer to test the levels of various pollutants in different rooms — including where firefighters eat and sleep — and recommend the best form of ventilation. 'That's all been put on pause,' said Hannah Echt, a member of the team and a union steward at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 'We haven't been able to travel since the end of January, and now … there's no one to do the traveling.' NIOSH's congressionally mandated Health Hazard Evaluation program is one of many health and safety services on which firefighters depend that's been shrunk or eliminated by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'reduction in force' — a purge of more than 10,000 employees. Firefighters are regularly exposed to toxins and chemicals that affect their physical and mental health, problems compounded by stress and irregular sleep. NIOSH research found that firefighters have a 9 percent greater risk of a cancer diagnosis and a 14 percent greater risk of dying from cancer than the general population. After years of helping improve firefighters' health outcomes, people in and out of government fear the NIOSH cuts will lead to major backsliding. Interviews with five current and former NIOSH employees, several of whom were granted anonymity due to fear of retribution, as well as active and retired firefighters, lawmakers and patient advocates, reveal instances in which data collection, safety evaluations and direct services for firefighters have been terminated due to staff reductions. Workers running the Center for Firefighter Safety, Health and Well-being, which includes the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program that researches why first responders get sick and die and how to prevent it, were laid off. Services for hundreds of thousands of people exposed to toxins on 9/11 — including thousands of firefighters — are hampered by cuts to NIOSH's World Trade Center Health Program, which researches and treats cancers and other health problems linked to the terrorist attack. And most of the team maintaining the CDC's National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, which President Donald Trump authorized in 2018, were let go. Kenny Schroeder, a firefighter hired by the CDC to help recruit participants for the cancer database, said the cuts are 'really a gut punch.' 'It was the Trump administration that put the registry in place,' said Schroeder, who was a probationary employee and got his termination notice in February. 'It's very disheartening. The government is supposed to assist us all — they're there in place to do work for us as the people of this country.' Polls showed firefighters and other first responders overwhelmingly supported Trump's reelection, and the president has often praised firefighters for their work. An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the cuts. NIOSH's Health Hazard Evaluation program operated for decades as a free consultation service for small businesses, large factories and other workplaces with health and safety risks. Crucially, workers could make anonymous requests to the federal team. The recent layoffs are disrupting dozens of investigations involving firefighters and other workers — from mining to cannabis processing to university campuses — and preventing new ones. An April 22 email obtained by POLITICO to a New Mexico university where a custodial worker died last year said the NIOSH team is 'not able to continue our health hazard evaluation' and also 'not accepting any new requests.' 'Basically, we're being told to close up shop,' Echt said. 'We'll close out what evaluations we can, and then we'll be issuing letters to requesters explaining about the reduction in force.' Another NIOSH researcher, granted anonymity for fear of retribution, said they were investigating how to remove contaminants from firefighting gear after a fire is doused when their team received termination notices. Their team had been looking at PFAS — so-called forever chemicals — in gear, how quickly firefighting equipment degrades and how to certify the commercial service providers that launder firefighting gear. 'All of that research is basically halted,' the person told POLITICO. 'We also had a nationwide exposure assessment study, and the analysis was actually complete, the data is sitting there.' A study of firefighters' exposure to carcinogens during electric vehicle fires and the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, which examined line-of-duty deaths, were also halted. "I don't feel like there was a thoughtful, intelligent process going into this,' said John Goodman, president of IAFF Local 29, a union of firefighters in Spokane, Washington. 'They're just cutting big budget items … without even looking into what it is. I think that even the people that voted for [Trump] are feeling that way." The International Association of Firefighters, which endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024 before declining to endorse either President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, declined to comment. Some Democratic lawmakers, local firefighter unions and other groups are pushing the Trump administration to reverse the cuts — arguing they make a dangerous job even more so, with little savings to show for it. Michael Barasch, the leading attorney and advocate for survivors of 9/11 and their families and a cancer survivor, is heading a delegation of unions and patient advocates to Washington on April 29. They plan to meet with House and Senate members from both parties to plead for help pressuring the Trump administration to reinstate workers in the World Trade Center Health Program who were laid off earlier this month. Chronic underfunding and understaffing meant that there was already a four-month wait for an appointment. Barasch said that has doubled since the cuts took effect this month. 'I'm afraid of what we're going to see with all these delayed mammograms, prostate exams, whole body skin exams, and every blood cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, and brain cancer case that's going to go undiagnosed for months unnecessarily,' he said. 'I just can't believe that Mr. Trump, who signed the permanent extension of the [September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act] in 2019, would allow this to happen if he had any idea how these cuts have affected the health program that's taking care of so many people who voted for him.' Firefighters celebrated Trump's 2018 signing of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, which required the CDC to create a database of firefighter's health data to help the federal government track the unusually high cancer rates in the industry. Since then, tens of thousands of firefighters have submitted health data, which NIOSH scientists hoped would yield insights into what practices and protective equipment work best. But most of the team running that first-of-its-kind database was terminated, and the data was pulled offline. And while a leaked budget proposal from the Trump administration shows plans for the registry to continue under the new Administration for a Healthy America, it's unclear who would do that work. 'This is going to set the science back years and years,' said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840, who had worked on firefighter health research at NIOSH. 'The research that needs to get done to keep firefighters safe and to know how to keep them safe isn't going to get done.' A few Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the cuts. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( for instance, sent a letter to Kennedy on Tuesday urging him to reinstate terminated NIOSH employees researching coal-mining safety, though she did not mention the cuts to programs supporting firefighters. More than 100 Democratic House members wrote to the administration earlier this month demanding the cuts to NIOSH be reversed. No Republicans signed the letter, and HHS has not responded. 'Mine workers, steel workers and firefighters have reached out to my office and they want to know: Why is the Trump administration undermining the people who are keeping them safe?' said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who represents the district where NIOSH's Cincinnati office is located. 'RFK himself said that they made a mistake, that they went too far, so they need to own their mistakes, reverse these decisions and put these people back to work.' Landsman told POLITICO he wants a hearing on the cuts in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has asked the Republican chair to demand Kennedy sit for questioning. 'The sooner, the better,' he said. 'Time is of the essence when it comes to people's jobs and worker safety and the health of this country — it is all on the line.'
