White House restores 9/11 health program funding after uproar

The White House restored funding for the 9/11 first responder survivors' health program after an uproar from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle ensued following the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cuts last week.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, one of the eight New York and New Jersey GOP lawmakers who urged President Trump to reverse course, said Thursday night that the legislators “received confirmation from the White House that there will be no cuts to staffing at the World Trade Center Healthcare Program and research grants related to 9/11 illnesses.”

The World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program provides research, medical monitoring and treatment to more than 100,000 survivors who were diagnosed with conditions after working in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Around 20 percent of the program’s staff were cut last week as part of DOGE’s broad push to slash government spending and downsize the federal workforce.

Malliotakis — along with New York Republican Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy, and New Jersey GOP Reps. Chris Smith and Tom Kean Jr. — pushed back against the cuts, arguing staff terminations “make it more difficult for the Program to supervise its contracts” and that Trump should reverse the push.

“We urge you, as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to reverse these actions by rehiring the terminated probationary staff, restoring the canceled FDNY research grant contract, and fencing off the WTC Health Program, which was authorized in statute as mandatory spending, from any further staff and funding reductions,” the eight GOP House lawmakers wrote in a Wednesday letter.

Blowback also came from New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, urging the new Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore the cuts made to the program.

“It is telling 9/11 survivors that after they risked everything to protect us, we can’t support their healthcare needed,” Schumer wrote in a Monday letter. “I’m demanding HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately reverse these cuts and terminations of the people who provide the healthcare to those who answered the call of duty on 9/11 and now suffer from cancer, respiratory illness and more.”

Schumer confirmed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) grants were restored and that those fired from the WTC Health Program should be brought back.

"This is a clear example of the damaging Trump-DOGE shoot first, ask questions later approach for their rash cuts and layoffs. 9/11 cancer research and funding for FDNY should have never been on the chopping block and I am pleased the CDC has heeded my call to restore this grant for 9/11 first responders,” Schumer said in a statement to CBS News.

“Now they need to fully uphold their promise and reverse the firings of World Trade Center Health staff to ensure care for 9/11 survivors and first responders continues uninterrupted,” the Senate minority leader added.

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