Last week, Elon Musk’s DOGE set its sights on the World Trade Center Health Program, which assists 9/11 rescue workers and survivors affected by illnesses caused by toxins released in the aftermath of the collapse and fires of the Twin Towers.
DOGE has cut about 20 percent of the staff working on the federal program. The measure did not go unnoticed, generating several reactions.
Earlier in the week, seven Republican representatives from New York and New Jersey wrote directly to President Donald Trump, asking him “as a New Yorker who has experienced the city as it recovers from the 9/11 terrorist attacks” to reverse the cuts inflicted by DOGE and rehire the laid-off employees.
The GOP members’ request was later supported by several Democratic “colleagues” as well. “This staff reduction will only make it more difficult for the program to supervise its contracts and to care for its members who are comprised of the brave men and women who ran towards danger and helped in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Republicans Andrew R. Garbarino, Chris Smith, Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick Langworthy wrote in their letter.
They also urged the president to restore funding for research conducted by the New York Fire Department that compares disease incidence rates among its own ranks with those of other urban departments. The grant was deemed “not essential.”
Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer for the FDNY, said Wednesday that “this study is critical because without it, we cannot definitively prove that illnesses are World Trade Center-related.”
The World Trade Center Health Program, which currently helps more than 137,000 people, was established by Congress in 2011 as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide care for rescue workers and people living in Lower Manhattan who became ill from toxins in the air at Ground Zero.
The program is overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the Department of Health and Human Services, which was recently taken over by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The latter had recently stated that he would “defend” this project from possible actions by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Many insiders explained that the staff working on the initiative were already struggling: the new cuts now threaten to deal the final blow to the program while putting its beneficiaries in serious jeopardy.
The DOGE action would reduce the staff’s ability to respond to patients’ requests and take action on prescription and treatment issues.
