The Department of Health and Human Services reversed a staffing reduction at a health program that provides vital medical care for 9/11 heroes after New York lawmakers bemoaned the cuts.
Officials in the CDC, a subagency of HHS, informed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) this week that the World Trade Center Health Program had gotten approval to hire 37 more employees to reach a goal of 120 full-time workers, following inquiries from her and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office.
“9/11 first responders and survivors put their lives on the line when our nation was in its darkest hour,” Gillibrand told The Post. “The World Trade Center Health Program serves as our commitment to them to address their resulting health care needs.”
“I am pleased that WTCHP is staffing back up so they can serve our country’s heroes and treat the many illnesses they now suffer due to their bravery on 9/11,” she added.
More than 30,000 first responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks have joined the program in the last three years to receive care. In total, 140,00 are enrolled.
Gillibrand and Schumer (D-NY) had sent a letter in March to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressing concern about the firing of staff at the WTC Health Program.
“While some staff have been rehired, not all have been allowed to return to work, and several individuals supporting the program’s work have been reassigned to other agencies without explanation,” the New York senators wrote on March 23.
At least two public health service corps officers were reassigned from the program — including the deputy director and another who was tasked with “HHS health care work in support of immigration enforcement efforts,” the letter noted.
After President Trump returned to the White House, the program’s total staff fell to just 84 and stayed there due to a hiring freeze that wasn’t lifted until last October.
That led to “delays in claims processing,” “the disruption of treatment authorizations,” “delays in the appeals process for program enrollment denials” and other backlogs forcing 9/11 survivors to wait sometimes up to a year for a resolution, Gillibrand and Schumer said.
Another $20 million in research contracts to study “cardiac, autoimmune, and cognitive issues related to toxic exposure on 9/11” was also delayed, they added.
“We are seven months away from the 25th Anniversary of that tragic day,” they pleaded, “you must allow the World Trade Center Health Program to do its job.”
Kennedy told NY1 earlier in April when asked about the staffing cuts, “We’re fixing it.”
The program got a shot in the arm in February with the passage of a $3 billion funding bill to fix a budget shortfall.
“This is what everybody wanted, and we got it,” Rep. Garbarino (R-NY) told The Post when the bill passed the House. Trump signed it into law in early February.
