Trump Reverses Cuts to 9/11 Health Program After Criticism

The Trump administration has reversed itself on making funding and staff cuts to a federal health program for survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, after bipartisan criticism of the moves.

In a statement on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the World Trade Center Health Program, said it had reinstated two research grants that had been cut and that employees who had been fired several days ago would return to their jobs.

John Feal, a retired construction worker from Long Island who began advocating for the program’s creation years after he was injured helping with cleanup and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center, praised the reversal.

“The White House underestimated us,” he said.

He and other advocates began mobilizing opposition to the cuts last week as soon as the Trump administration fired 16 health program employees who helped administer medical treatment for those suffering from attack-related toxins.

The program’s 90-member staff was reduced about 20 percent overall. Advocates, members of Congress and workers who had been let go said that in addition to the 16 workers who were fired, others had taken buyouts and left.

The firings immediately touched off an outcry among Democratic lawmakers, who said the cuts would delay enrollment for new patients and make fewer workers available to patients and help with diagnoses and treatment.

One of those Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said on Friday that the program “should have never been on the chopping block in the first place.”

He added: “It makes sense that the Trump administration has done a complete about-face.”

Once announced, the cuts quickly proved to be a political third rail, and Democrats were soon joined in opposing them by Republican members of Congress in districts in and around New York City, where the memory of 9/11 continues to resonate powerfully.

On Wednesday, in a striking challenge to President Trump, eight congressional Republicans appealed to him in a letter “as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks” to reverse the cuts.

The letter appeared to have a speedy effect. Word spread on Thursday that the administration had restored research grants that had been terminated. One, for $257,000, is for research by the New York City Fire Department comparing incidence rates for cancer in their ranks with those in other urban departments. The grant was cut last week as “nonessential,” which Fire Department officials disputed.

The city’s fire commissioner, Robert Tucker, said on Friday that the restoration of the grant money word “provide treatment coverage to those who need it most, and make good on our promise to never forget.”

Representative Andrew Garbarino, a Long Island Republican, hailed the reversal in a social media post on Friday and welcomed what he called “President Trump’s commitment to making sure these heroes continue to receive the health care they need.”

In confirming that the grants were being restored, the C.D.C. said that 11 of the employees who had been fired would return to work. The status of the other five was unclear.

Such a reversal was unusual but not unprecedented for the Trump administration, which has been slashing federal jobs across agencies as part of the billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency, or DOGE.

The administration backtracked last week after firing scores of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Later, some of the laid-off staffers were brought back to work.

The congressional Republicans’ letter about cuts was mostly written by Mr. Garbarino and signed by five other New York House members and Representatives Chris Smith and Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey.

“To fulfill our moral obligation to 9/11 survivors and responders, we must ensure that the program not only has the necessary resources, but also is properly administered, so that program members receive the high-quality care that they need and deserve,” the letter said.

Congress created the program, which now assists 137,000 people, in 2011 as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide treatment for emergency workers, cleanup crews and Lower Manhattan residents who became ill from being at or near ground zero.

Benjamin Chevat, the executive director at a group dedicated to extending the act, urged the president “to instruct his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to ensure that the World Trade Center Health Program is protected from further cuts and or disruptions.”