Statement on the World Trade Center Health Program Being Able to Finally Fix Staff Shortage and Fill Its 30% of Staff Vacancies 

Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act applauded the news that Secretary Kennedy has finally allowed the World Trade Center Health Program to fill the 37 vacancies it has had in program staff. 

When Secretary Kennedy took over the program, it had 93 staff but had authorization to increase to 120 people to deal with the increase in program members of almost 30,000 new 9/11 responders and survivors in last three years. 

But since last spring—when the Secretary fired program staff and then rehired them and fired other staff, the total staff at the program dropped to 83.

With this news, that the program can hire more staff, the program will be better able to process certifications and manage the program’s contractors and provide better care.

Benjamin Chevat, Executive Director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act stated:

A year ago, Secretary Kennedy was firing World Trade Center Health Program staff, then hiring them back then firing other program staff until he admitted it was all a “mistake” and hired them back again. Now a year later he is finally letting the program fill the staff vacancies that the program was blocked from filling—, so this is progress. But he is NOT done, now he needs let the program issue its millions in research grants for the year that have been stalled since he took over, allow the program to make decisions on pending petitions on whether to cover autoimmune, cardiac and cognitive conditions among others that have been delayed on his watch and stop restricting meetings with the 911 community. I hope that some members of the House and Senate will be asking him about this when he testifies this before Congress this week and next.

I want to thank the Members of Congress who continued to support the World Trade Center Health Program and advocated to have these vacancies filled, especially Representatives Garbarino, LaLota, Lawler, Goldman and Nadler and Senators Gillibrand and Schumer who urged Secretary Kennedy to take action.

Secretary Kennedy still needs to:

• Lift his communications restrictions between the program and the 9/11 community that continue (despite his denials).
• Ensure that the WTC Health Program finally decides on petitions that have been pending for over three years to add cardiac, autoimmune and cognitive issues to the list of covered conditions.
• And he needs to allow the programs annual research awards of millions of dollars in research on 9/11 conditions to finally go forward.

You can read about the impact of Secretary Kennedy on the World Trade Center Health Program here on our website.

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