WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to face questions about the future of the World Trade Center Health Program when he testifies before two congressional panels on Wednesday.
New York’s Democratic senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, at a news conference Tuesday said Democrats plan to grill Kennedy about layoffs of 16 workers at the program that were rescinded earlier this month. The lawmakers contend the layoffs led to service interruptions at the program that provides health care to more than 100,000 first responders and people diagnosed with illnesses linked to toxic exposure from the attack sites.
Gillibrand and Schumer, standing alongside a coalition of 9/11 survivors and advocates, said they also want answers about the status of Dr. John Howard, the administrator of the program, and program workers who received layoff notices in April, that were ultimately rescinded last month amid a pressure campaign from New York’s congressional delegation.
“The Trump administration says they’ve reinstated Dr. Howard and those who were fired, but it’s unclear what that actually means,” Gillibrand said. “Are they fully reinstated? For how long? How can we trust what the administration says — because they keep firing the people who are doing the work that keeps our first responders alive.”
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the concerns raised by Gillibrand and Schumer, but Newsday reported earlier this month that laid-off workers received a notice on May 6 advising they would no longer be impacted by the department’s slashing of 10,000 positions across various agencies under it.
But the notice viewed by Newsday did not provide a date for when work would resume.
“The firefighters and heroes who worked ‘the pile,’ helping rebuild after the darkest hours in America are sick with cancer from the toxic air they breathed … many are dying, is this how you treat their health care,” Schumer asked.
Kennedy is scheduled to testify in the morning before the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), a member of the panel, last week issued a joint statement with Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) and other New York House Republicans stating the job status of the health program’s employees “should have never been in question.”
Kennedy is then slated to testify in the afternoon before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Advocates who have walked the halls of Congress for years to lobby lawmakers on behalf of the program said Tuesday they were disheartened that its future is still in question.
John Feal, founder of the Nesconset-based FealGood Foundation, which advocates on behalf of 9/11 first responders, accused Kennedy of acting “recklessly, without any humanity.”
“If you’re not angry, then you’re not human,” Feal said.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
