Staff cuts to World Trade Center Health Program bring anger, frustration, anxiety 

Tom Wilson, a former NYPD sergeant from Bellport, said he has watched with anger and frustration as the Trump administration has made deep staffing cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program he credits with saving his life. 

Wilson, 56, spent nearly a month at Ground Zero following the 9/11 terror attacks and later worked at the Staten Island landfill, sifting through debris in the search for human remains. He said he paid a stiff price for his service after being diagnosed with tongue cancer, chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease and PTSD. 

Wilson and others who advocate for participants in the program, which provides medical treatment and services for 137,000 ailing first responders and survivors with conditions linked to toxic exposure from the attacks, said they're worried about whether it will continue to provide the same level of care for enrollees and those who may seek help in the future.

"We're dying at a pretty quick rate, and my outlook is always let us just fade away honorably and with respect. But, we're not allowed to continue our lives honorably and respectfully," Wilson, also a former Suffolk County Police Department member, said of cuts he said are damaging to the program and its mission.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which administers the WTC Health Program through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement Wednesday that services haven't stopped.

"The WTC Health Program’s Clinical Centers of Excellence and Nationwide Provider Network are continuing to provide services to program members at this time," the statement said. "Direct patient care is functioning, and program members are being seen by doctors and nurses at clinics. All statutorily required programs will remain intact, and as a result of the reorganization, will be better positioned to execute on Congress’s statutory intent."

It's been a chaotic few months for the program, its staff and its participants.

In February, the administration, at the suggestion of the Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by White House advisor billionaire Elon Musk, terminated at least 16 of the program's 86 staff members, only to reverse course amid public and political pressure, Newsday previously reported. Of the 16 workers, 11 were rehired, an additional four accepted buyouts and another is likely to retire, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer's office. 

Then, earlier this month, 16 other program employees, including 13 in Cincinnati and three in West Virginia, have been told they will be terminated, according to Benjamin Chevat, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act.

The group was created by labor unions and advocates to ensure that the Victim Compensation Fund, which supports the WTC Health Program was renewed, extended and fully funded.

In addition, widespread workforce cuts implemented this month by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. included most of the staff at NIOSH, along with Dr. John Howard, the head of NIOSH and director of the WTC Health Program.

Howard later was reinstated as the head of the WTC Health Program, according to Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), who told Newsday his firing was a mistake.

The CDC has refused to confirm Howard's rehiring or to comment on the staffing cuts. 

Chevat said an unknown number of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who administered WTC Health Program contracts and grants also were terminated.

In addition, NIOSH is expected to lose roughly 850 of its almost 1,000 workers, including the doctors who certified illnesses as related to 9/11, The Associated Press reported, citing estimates from a labor union and impacted employees.

Advocate John Feal, of Nesconset, a demolition supervisor who was seriously injured in the rescue effort at Ground Zero, said the cuts are creating widespread anxiety among first responders in the program.

"Those in the program with severe PTSD are not going to be able to process this," Feal said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm concerned they're going to hurt themselves. The anxiety, angst, pain and mental anguish are at an all all-time high in the 9/11 community. And the damage is already done. You can only put so many fingers into so many holes in the dam. And I fear the dam is going to crack and it's going to be irreversible."

Despite the CDC's statement, there are questions about whether the WTC Health Program is fully operational.

Last week, Lauren Cimineri, the health care benefits branch chief of the program, sent an internal email to clinic staff, contractors and vendors saying all enrollment and certification letters have been paused in the absence of a center director, Newsday previously reported. It remains unclear if enrollment has since resumed.

In addition, Chevat said, petitions to add new conditions to the program have ceased, research grants have been halted and some lifesaving treatments are being delayed because there are no NIOSH doctors to sign off on the care.

"The program is in chaos," Chevat said in an interview. "People who are experiencing issues with rare conditions or who are trying to enroll in the program, these people are not getting help. There are real impacts to the chaos that DOGE has created."

Sara Director, of Locust Valley, an attorney who represents program members, said without full staffing, thousands of 9/11 survivors will be left waiting for chemotherapy, transplants and even a returned phone call.

"And for 9/11 first responders and survivors with PTSD, every staffing cut reopens the wound," Director, who is herself enrolled in the WTC Health Program, said in an interview. "It's not just the fear of losing care. It's being thrown back into the trauma that they spent decades trying to heal from. These cuts don't just delay treatment. They deepen the scars woven into the lives of those who have already given everything."

John Fitzpatrick, 69, of Farmingdale, who worked for Hewlett Packard in lower Manhattan on 9/11, and has since been diagnosed with skin cancer, said he's concerned his treatments could stop being covered and that his health could deteriorate.

"I fear we're going to be left on our own," Fitzpatrick, who registered with the WTC Health Program in 2021, said in an interview. "I'm concerned this is all going to fall back on us. And it will be up to us to take care of ourselves."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.