World Trade Center health program resumes treatments after outcry

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 1, 2025

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The health program that treats Sept. 11 first responders has started resuming enrollment of new participants and approving treatments for ailing patients after on-again, off-again Trump administration cuts had hobbled the program for weeks, the Daily News has learned.

A Department of Health and Human Services official informed doctors and administrators in the World Trade Center Health Program that all services could resume, according to an email obtained by the News.

“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 Trade Center Health Program, has also been told by HHS officials that he is fully reinstated to his post and given authority to certify illnesses and approve treatment plans.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., said in a statement that the HHS action came after bipartisan outreach to the Trump administration to jump-start the stalled program.

“Let me be clear: Anything that jeopardizes care for 9/11 responders and survivors is indefensible,” Garbarino said in a statement.

Garbarino added that he had spoken with Howard and assured that “questions about Dr. Howard’s authorities … have been resolved.”

The action from the feds came after a front page Daily News scoop revealing that Howard’s status had been left in limbo for weeks, as well as that new participants were not being enrolled in the program and treatment plans were not being approved. This week, three FDNY employees were unable to get treatment plans approved for recent cancer diagnosis.

“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,” said Ben Chevat of Citizens 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 few weeks for the Trump administration, which fired Howard and several other WTC Health Program staffers in March as part of a wide effort spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to downsize government.

After a flurry of bipartisan outcry, the White House said it was reversing the cuts and reinstating Howard.

But it didn’t actually take the necessary bureaucratic steps to return Howard to his post, effectively preventing him from approving treatment plans and overseeing other medical issues.

Many WTC health program staffers have been told their jobs have been eliminated and some have not been restored, despite claims they would all be rehired.

Dr. David Prezant, the FDNY’s chief medical officer, called it a “shell game.”

About 137,000 first responders and survivors rely on the WTC Health Program to get treatment and medication and monitor injuries and illnesses caused by the toxins that swirled around Ground Zero during 9/11 and the weeks that followed.

About 83,000 have at least one certified 9/11 illness from their exposure during and after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as the hijacked plane crashes near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon.

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