9/11 health research program will be fully funded, officials say
There's $20 million in annual federal funding made available to local clinics and research centers to fund long-term health studies of 9/11 responders and survivors. Credit: Newsday/Jiro Ose
WASHINGTON — More than $13 million in federal funding for 9/11 health studies initially feared lost will remain intact, federal officials have confirmed to Newsday.
Earlier in the month, World Trade Center Health Program officials told a panel of New York-based clinicians and 9/11 health advocates that the money could be lost in part due to delays in getting research grants approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has grappled with widespread layoffs this past year.
The money was part of $20 million in annual federal funding made available to local clinics and research centers — including Stony Brook’s World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program and the FDNY’s World Trade Center health clinic — to fund long-term health studies of Sept. 11, 2001, responders and survivors. That includes searching for new diseases and conditions including cognitive decline and autoimmune diseases.
Only $7 million in grants has been approved before the federal government’s fiscal budget year ends Wednesday, raising concerns that the remaining $13 million could not roll over to the following year without impacting a $20 million annual cap on research funding for 9/11 health studies written into the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2011.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) told Newsday he was assured at a recent meeting with Dr. John Howard, the World Trade Center Health Program’s administrator, that the money could indeed be used this coming fiscal year because it comes from a "mandatory" funding pool, unlike "discretionary" funding that must be spent by the Sept. 30 deadline.
Garbarino, in a phone interview, said the funding is critical for tracking health trends among 9/11 survivors to ensure those exposed to toxins receive proper access to treatments.
"There are certain autoimmune diseases and other things that more 9/11 survivors are dealing with ... so they [researchers] need to go in and get the data and do research to make that scientific connection so they can add these other diseases to the treatment portfolio," Garbarino said.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson in an email to Newsday said the agency is still reviewing the pending grant applications submitted this year and expects to award more grants by the end of the calendar year, without impacting next year’s batch of grant applications.
Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the 9/11 community, blamed the widespread layoffs at the CDC for the delays in grant approval.
Chevat told Newsday in a statement that preserving the research funds "is good news to the thousands in the World Trade Center Health Program who want research on their conditions to continue."
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.
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