NYS officials seek answers after World Trade Center health workers are reassigned

WASHINGTON — New York lawmakers and 9/11 victim advocates are calling on the Trump administration to reverse the reassignment of two top World Trade Center Health Program officials as the program grapples with service delays and staffing shortages.

A senior director of the health program has been deployed to a four-month stint with the Indian Health Service, a federal initiative to provide tribal lands with medical access. Advocates say a second worker was sent to a short-term assignment working with immigrant detainees at the border, before ultimately leaving the 9/11 program for another job.

Advocates and public safety leaders are raising questions about the staff diversions at a time the program is dealing with a 25% shortage in staff and an increase in people seeking help. The program provides medical care for nearly 140,000 people who have been diagnosed with cancers and other diseases tied to their exposure to the toxic Sept. 11, 2001, attack sites.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement Wednesday called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to undo any staff changes at the program, which is authorized by the Office of Management and Budget to employ 120 workers. The program currently has 83 workers on staff, compared with the 93 that were employed when the Trump administration entered office  in January 2025.

"The World Trade Center Health Program is a lifeline for the survivors and first responders who answered the call almost 25 years ago and afterward without hesitation — and they deserve the same support from their government today," Hochul said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a news conference last Saturday criticized the administration for diverting a worker to the southern border, saying the administration should not "strip staff from a program keeping 9/11 heroes alive and hand them over" to immigration agencies.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), in a statement to Newsday said she is concerned that reassigning the program's staff "to other agencies will impede the program’s ability to meet the needs of our survivors and responders and is a betrayal of their service to New York and our nation."

Manhattan Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerrold Nadler last week issued a letter to Kennedy requesting a briefing for New York House Democrats in part to address the staffing issues. The letter is cosigned by Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) and comes a week after Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) issued a letter to Kennedy requesting a briefing for New York’s House Republicans on the state of the program.

The Democrats' letter takes issue with the temporary reassignments, saying: "This move only exacerbates the existing staffing shortages and ultimately contributes to delays in enrollment processing and health care for patients."

Asked about the questions raised by lawmakers, HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said in an email to Newsday: "HHS remains committed to the critical programs that serve hardworking Americans across the nation, including 9/11 responders and survivors."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.