Democrats demand Kennedy’s answers to delayed actions of the September 11 health program

Before the 24th anniversary of September 11, the Democrats demand responses from the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In a letter to Kennedy on Wednesday, obtained exclusively by NBC News, six Democratic senators have expressed themselves that the program does not respect the mandate to assess whether additional health conditions should be eligible for the program medical coverage.

Over the past eight months, the program has been prey to financing shortages and endowment cuts (some staff members have been dismissed and rehired on several occasions), which has sometimes led to waiting times for one month for survivors looking for appointments, which can delay diagnostics and critical and safeguarded treatment.

The attacks on twin towers and the Pentagon have released toxic debris and chemicals that have been linked to a range of health problems, including asthma, leukemia and prostate and thyroid cancers. The World Trade Center health program covers the cost of monitoring and treating these diseases for September 11 stakeholders and people who have experienced, worked or attended school services or by day in the field of disasters. Some people join the program after disease has developed, while others join to receive annual projections that could detect diseases in the future.

At the end of last year, the federal program had set a deadline in March to decide on certain autoimmune, heart and cognitive conditions in its list of covered diseases – but this deadline came and came, wrote the senators in their letter.

The conditions considered included lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, strokes, obstructive coronary coronary disease and dementia of young people, according to petitions subjected by doctors involved in the program.

“This delay in the recognition of new health problems linked to the exhibitions received in Ground Zero, Shanksville, and the Pentagon night to the capacity of the first stakeholders who responded heroically on September 11 to obtain the health care they need and are entitled,” the senators wrote.

They added that the delay “also calls into question if there are other elements of the program that are not completed, such as the registration of newly eligible members, surveillance and research to support the addition of new health conditions and public communication around this work.”

Senators – Senator Andy Kim, DN.J., Senator Chuck Schumer, Dn.y., Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Dn.y., Senator Richard Blumenthal, D -Conn., Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA. and Senator Cory Booker, DN.J. – represent the states whose residents were directly affected by September 11.

They asked Kennedy to provide answers to questions about the program status by October 10, including updates to the number of staff members who remain and how many new members have been registered since January.

The World Trade Center health program has been on fragile field since the start of the second Trump administration. First, more than a dozen of its employees were swept away in the dismissal of probationary workers in February. The administration then restored the positions, but the same employees were dismissed as part of the massive restructuring of the Ministry of Health and Social Services. HHS then reversed the decision and brought back the employees.

Kennedy’s latest public comments on the subject were during a hearing on the chamber budget in May, when he said that the endowment cuts were a mistake.

“Our agency was invited to make very, very serious budget cuts which were going to be painful. Some of them should not have been made, and it was not one should have, and I reversed it,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Democratic senators expressed the disappointment that delays seem to have persisted since then.

“We understood that the question was resolved, depending on your personal commitment to us,” they wrote. “Thus, we are extremely concerned about the new reports according to which there was no other action on petitions on the program to add health problems under WTCHP.”

In a letter to Kennedy last month, Gillibrand and Schumer declared that the program was down to 80 staff members from January 9 to 20. Benjamin Chevat, Executive Director of September 11 Health Watch – A non -profit group that helps ensure that people have access to program services – said that part of the reduction could be due to employees to accept the buyouts offered by the Trump administration.

Gillibrand and Schumer called Kennedy to lift a job freeze so that the program takes into account the growing number of registrants. Registration increased by 10,000 new members last year, they said, for a total of more than 140,000 registered in 2024.

“The program must hire more doctors and other specialized staff members to allow program functions to continue with maximum efficiency. Without adequate supervision staff, the activities will not be those required because appropriate surveillance cannot be provided, “they wrote.

Chevat said in a statement on Wednesday that Kennedy “was to change course and recognize – as he did in May – that he continued to make mistakes with the program.”

He told NBC News that the World Trade Center’s Respondent Committee Committee, of which he is a member, has not met since January – despite the monthly concession before the change of administration. The committee gives doctors and defenders the opportunity to meet federal health officials to discuss the functioning of the program. (Gillibrand and Schumer in their August letter cited an ongoing communication break which prevented the meetings from taking place.)

Michael Barasch, partner of Barasch & McGarry, a law firm representing the survivors and survivors of September 11, said that the waiting times for survivors to make an appointment with the program – the first step towards obtaining treatment – had increased spectacularly. The average wait is currently about six months, he said.

“I am not exaggerating here-people will die because of these expectations,” he said.

Barasch said the program is also faced with a deficit of nearly $ 3 billion until 2040. Several legislators promised last year to fill the deficit, he said, but the commitment fell after the change of administration. Barasch now supports two bills that would provide additional funding – one in the House and one in the Senate – which hopes to prevent the services of services and allow the program to continue to register new members.