Sens. Schumer, Gillibrand call on Health Secretary Kennedy to fix issues with WTC Health Program

WASHINGTON — The World Trade Center Health Program continues to be hampered by staffing shortages and operational issues, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The pair of New York Democrats wrote to Kennedy on Tuesday demanding he address "administrative issues currently plaguing" the federal program that administers health care to 9/11 first responders and those who have fallen ill with cancers and respiratory diseases linked to their time near the toxic attack sites in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

"As we approach the 24th Anniversary of [the] 9/11 attack this fall, it is imperative that we continue to support our first responders and survivors that still suffer from illnesses acquired that horrific day," Gillibrand and Schumer wrote in their joint letter.

The senators said that committee meetings with responders and survivors that are required by law have not taken place since the Trump administration took over in January.

"The normal interactions of the program with the 9/11 community that provide information and feedback to the program are not taking place," the senators stated in their letter.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about the claims laid out in the letter.

The letter also notes that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump restricting federal employee travel is impairing the program’s ability to "perform normal inspections of contractors and clinic providers."

The Trump administration has faced ongoing scrutiny over its handling of the World Trade Center Health Program, which was established by Congress in 2011 to handle the growing number of people diagnosed with severe and fatal illnesses linked to their exposure to toxic air and dust near the Sept. 11, 2001 attack sites.

In May, the administration rescinded layoff notices given to 16 employees of the program, following public outcry about the layoffs. The agency also scrambled to reinstate the health program’s longtime director — Dr. John Howard — amid a flurry of Health and Human Services layoffs in April.

Kennedy, in testimony before a U.S. Senate panel in May, acknowledged that "mistakes" were made during the widespread layoffs.

"We understood that there would be some mistakes made, and that we would go back and reverse them when they were made," Kennedy said at the May 14 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The World Trade Center Health Program employed 93 workers when Trump took office on Jan. 20, but that number has since dropped to 80 employees after some workers accepted a federal buyout, Gillibrand and Schumer said in their letter. They urged Kennedy to lift a hiring freeze and fill the openings.

The lawmakers said the program which currently helps 140,000 first responders and survivors, is projected to grow by an additional 10,000 new enrollees over the next year.

"The program needs to hire more doctors and other specialized staff to allow the program’s functions to continue at peak efficiency," the lawmakers wrote in their letter. "Without adequate supervisory staff, activities will fall short of what is required because proper oversight cannot be provided."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

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.