New York senators Schumer, Gillibrand to press Kennedy to reverse cuts to WTC health program

WASHINGTON — New York’s senators have asked for a meeting with newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to demand he reverse staff cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sent a letter Monday to Kennedy reminding him that in a pre-confirmation meeting with them, he committed to ensuring 9/11 first responders and survivors would continue to get the care they need.

"We ask that you uphold your commitment by reversing the rash and counterproductive termination of WTCHP staff and provide answers to how you will ensure continuity of quality care for WTCHP enrollees," they said in the letter.

The Health and Human Services news media office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about whether Kennedy would meet with the senators and whether he would restore the program's staffing.

The number of WTC Health Program staff fired now stands at 16 — four more than first reported — and several others took the Trump administration’s buyout, a reduction of about 20% of the total staff, according to advocates, Schumer and Gillibrand said in a press release.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced cuts to research grants that would prevent the Fire Department of New York from providing treatment coverage for new health conditions related to 9/11 and the aftermath.

Gillibrand, the longtime Senate sponsor of bills to federally fund the center and care for 9/11 responders and survivors, said in a statement: "This is betrayal of our heroes who stepped up and risked their lives to put our community back together in one of our nation’s darkest hours, and we will not let it stand."

Schumer said, “ 'Never forget’ is not just a slogan. It is a sacred promise to always stand by 9/11 heroes, a promise being broken by slashing funding and vital staffing for their health care in the World Trade Center Health Program. It’s unacceptable, and un-American."

One of the employees who lost his job in the cutbacks was public affairs officer Anthony Gardner, whose brother Harvey died in the 9/11 attack and who worked for three years in the WTC Health Program. Gardner bemoaned the staff reductions.

"The consequences that these cuts are already going to have on our members is going to be pretty significant because we lost people across every team," Gardner told Newsday in a phone interview. "There were only 90 full-time federal employees at the program, and now 20% of us are gone within a weekend." 

New York Attorney General Letitia James; Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association Local 854 International Association; and Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, also protested the cuts to the health program and urged reinstatement of the fired employees. 

Congress created the WTC Health Program in 2011.

It now provides care for more than 130,000 first responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist attacks, many of those enrolled in the program suffering from cancer and other ailments. The staff also conducts research.

The program expanded five months ago from just covering those harmed by the attack on the World Trade Center to include those affected by the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the hijacked airliner that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.