Trump DOGE job cuts at CDC to impact World Trade Center Health Program
- “We have serious questions and grave concerns regarding potential staff reductions for the essential World Trade Center Health Program,” U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said.
- U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said on Monday that he had been working with the White House to “ensure there are no impacts on providing care to our brave 9/11 heroes.”
- Permanent funding for the WTC Health Program was seen as a way to fulfill a promise to 9/11 responders and survivors to provide health monitoring and care.
Senate Democrats from New York on Friday, Feb. 14, warned that across-the-board cuts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would impact the program that provides healthcare for 9/11 first responders and survivors who were sickened from toxic conditions during and after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The cuts are considered a continuation of Thursday’s firing of thousands of people at multiple agencies. The cuts are seen as part of plans hatched by billionaire Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to drastically reducing the federal workforce.
“We have serious questions and grave concerns regarding potential staff reductions for the essential World Trade Center Health Program,” U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement sent to the USA Today Network Friday afternoon. “We worked hard for years to build bipartisan support and to secure full resources for the program – including nearly $1.7 billion in the past few years. The cutting of vital federal workers would undermine our sacred promise to take care of all those who answered the call on 9/11 and are now suffering health problems as a result.”
WTC Health Program funds need replenishing
The potential staffing cuts were doubly frustrating because a December 2024 year-end budget plan blew up at the behest of then-President-elect Trump and Musk. The original plan had contained a formula that had solved ongoing shortfalls faced by the World Trade Center Health Program.
The massive funding bill fell apart just before the holiday break and in the dwindling days of the Biden administration. The reconstituted, slimmed-down version scrapped the WTC funding fix.
The permanent funding was seen as a way to fulfill a promise to 9/11 responders and survivors to provide health monitoring and care. Every few years, when funding ran short, 9/11 responders, including those wracked with disease, would have to trundle down to Washington, D.C., and walk the halls of Congress to push for a funding boost.
As of Friday evening, there were no details about the extent of any impact of Friday’s reports of staff dismissals and the World Trade Center Health Program.
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said Monday that he had been working with the White House to “reverse the decision and ensure there are no impacts on providing care to our brave 9/11 heroes.” The Republican’s 17th District includes Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess.
Lawler’s district is home to many police and firefighters who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
DOGE impact:Trump, Musk escalate purge as thousands fired across federal workforce
The recent federal firings were aimed at newer employees, various media reported, and likely would impact 10% of the workforce. Meanwhile, about 75,000 federal workers accepted a recent offer of buyouts, or 3.3% of the workforce, Reuters had reported. The White House had wanted up to 10% of federal workers to the deal.
“The Trump administration must come clean with whatever dirty deal they have planned for a health fund that should be about taking care of our the 9/11 heroes— nothing more, nothing less,” Schumer and Gillibrand said.
What is the WTC Funding Program?
The World Trade Center Health Program provides health monitoring and treatment for 9/11-related health conditions.
Responders, including police, firefighters, clean-up workers and others who worked in rescue and recovery efforts around the World Trade Center site can qualify for the health program. So can those who lived, worked or went to school in Lower Manhattan during and in the months after the terrorist attacks. The program also supports people exposed at the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
The health program was established as part of the 2011 James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act and was originally funded for five years for $1.6 billion.
Deaths from 9/11-related illness surpass number killed in attacks
An estimated 400,000 people were exposed to toxic contaminants, risk of physical injury, and physically and emotionally stressful conditions in the days, weeks, and months following the attacks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than twice as many people have died from illnesses linked to 9/11 exposures than perished during the terrorist attacks, WTC Health Program data show.
Some 69 cancers and other medical conditions have been linked to 9/11 toxins.
More information about the WTC Health Program is available at cdc.gov/wtc.
This story was updated to include comments by U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler on Monday, Feb. 17.
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