NEVER FORGET

Trump Admin Deals Harsh Blow to 9/11 Survivor Program

The HHS layoffs have impacted a program dedicated to helping people with post-9/11 illnesses.

The World Trade Center Health Program has become the latest victim of Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts. The program, which helps 9/11 first responders and survivors, faces a bleak future after the Trump administration laid off hundreds of staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)—which oversees the program. New York officials and first responders have voiced concerns that the program will no longer be able to successfully monitor people who were impacted by the terrorist attacks and have now developed respiratory diseases or cancers. Some survivors have even called the move an “insult to those who died.” The program-wide slashes come after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to fire 10,000 employees. New York Democrats such as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand condemned the move, with Schumer saying the cuts would “delay and deny care” in a move that he called “ a complete betrayal to the memory of those we lost on 9/11 and the heroes who courageously stood up to help New York and our country during one of America’s darkest hours.”