About 20 percent of the World Trade Central Health Program’s staff had been terminated amid President Trump’s slashing of the federal work force.
About 20 percent of the World Trade Central Health Program’s staff had been terminated amid President Trump’s slashing of the federal work force.
The Trump administration has reversed itself on making funding and staff cuts to a federal health program for survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, after bipartisan criticism of the moves.
In a statement on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the World Trade Center Health Program, said it had reinstated two research grants that had been cut and that employees who had been fired several days ago would return to their jobs.
John Feal, a retired construction worker from Long Island who began advocating for the program’s creation years after he was injured helping with cleanup and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center, praised the reversal.
“The White House underestimated us,” he said.
He and other advocates began mobilizing opposition to the cuts last week as soon as the Trump administration fired 16 health program employees who helped administer medical treatment for those suffering from attack-related toxins.
The program’s 90-member staff was reduced about 20 percent overall. Advocates, members of Congress and workers who had been let go said that in addition to the 16 workers who were fired, others had taken buyouts and left.
The firings immediately touched off an outcry among Democratic lawmakers, who said the cuts would delay enrollment for new patients and make fewer workers available to patients and help with diagnoses and treatment.
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