“We are able to resume processing enrollments, certifications, and [treatment] letters at this time. Expedites have also been processed,” wrote Lauren Cimineri, an HHS official. “You should be seeing the new decisions in your next data feeds this Friday and Monday.”
Dr. James Howard, the director of the World Commerce Middle Well being Program, has additionally been advised by HHS officers that he’s totally reinstated to his put up and given authority to certify diseases and approve therapy plans.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) stated in an announcement that the HHS motion got here after bipartisan outreach to the Trump administration to jumpstart the stalled program.
“Let me be clear: Anything that jeopardizes care for 9/11 responders and survivors is indefensible,” Garbarino stated in an announcement.
Garbarino added that he had spoken with Howard and guaranteed that “questions about Dr. Howard’s authorities … have been resolved.”
“We are glad to hear that the truth has finally caught up to [HHS] and that 9/11 responders and survivors will be getting the help from the program they should have been getting all along,” stated Ben Chevat of Residents for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, a 9/11 advocacy group. “But this should never have happened.”
It’s the second about-face in a couple of weeks for the Trump administration, which fired Howard and several other different WTC Well being Program staffers in March as a part of a large effort spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity to downsize authorities.
After a flurry of bipartisan outcry, the White Home stated it was reversing the cuts and reinstating Howard.
But it surely didn’t really take the required bureaucratic steps to return Howard to his put up, successfully stopping him from approving therapy plans and overseeing different medical points.
Many WTC well being program staffers have been advised their jobs have been eradicated and a few haven’t been restored, regardless of claims they might all be rehired.
Dr. David Prezant, the FDNY’s chief medical officer, known as it a “shell game.”
About 137,000 first responders and survivors depend on the WTC Well being Program to get therapy and drugs and monitor accidents and diseases brought on by the toxins that swirled round Floor Zero throughout 9/11 and the weeks that adopted.
About 83,000 have at the very least one licensed 9/11 sickness from their publicity throughout and after the fear assaults on the World Commerce Middle, in addition to the hijacked aircraft crashes close to Shanksville, Pa., and on the Pentagon.
Initially Revealed: Might 1, 2025 at 5:10 PM EDT
