New York Republicans wrote a Wednesday letter to President Trump citing issues with probationary job cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which have impacted the workforce and a program supporting 9/11 first responder survivors.
GOP Reps. Andrew R. Garbarino, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis, Nick Langworthy, Chris Smith and Tom Kean rebuked the president’s actions in an uncommon public move.
“While we commend your effort to hold our government’s workforce to a higher standard of conduct, we implore you to ensure that any overall workforce reduction at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is done in a targeted manner so as to not impact the vital functions of the [World Trade Center (WTC) Health] Program,” the group wrote.
“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.”
The affected program served over 100,000 survivors and responders and supported research that would help link victims’ health conditions to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Republicans pleaded with the president to reverse course.
“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,” lawmakers wrote.
Senate Democrats wrote a similar letter on Wednesday to the newly minted Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. requesting that he reinstate the trimmed workforce to ensure stability.
