John Howard testifies before Congress in May 2020. (Rod Lamke/Pool/Getty Images)
The Trump administration this week fired the longtime head of a federal program that provides medical benefits to first responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, alarming advocates and lawmakers who said the move could disrupt care for the program’s more than 100,000 beneficiaries.
John Howard, administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, lost his job under the sweeping layoffs that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered across U.S. health agencies as the administration continues to slash the federal workforce.
The cuts included hundreds of staffers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which runs the program and where Howard served as director. Some of those staffers were doctors and epidemiologists who assisted the health program in its work, according to Benjamin Chevat, an advocate for 9/11 survivors and first responders who helped create the program.
While the program’s 86 full-time employees were allowed to keep their jobs, the firing of Howard and the other employees could hobble the program’s ability to provide critical health services if they are not reinstated, Chevat said.
“It’s just wrong that we are spending time and energy on this,” he said. “It could have been avoided if they had spent 10 minutes calling Dr. Howard up.”
An HHS spokesperson, Vianca N. Rodriguez Feliciano, did not comment on the firing of Howard but said in a statement that the program’s work on behalf of survivors and first responders will continue.
“HHS’ reorganization will allow the program to better serve these individuals in a more efficient way,” she said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Howard could not be reached for comment.
Rep. Andrew R. Garbarino (R-New York) said through a spokesperson that Howard’s firing was a mistake and that he met with White House officials Wednesday to discuss the matter.
“They understand that this is a top priority and are treating it with a sense of urgency,” Garbarino said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both New York Democrats, condemned the health agency cuts in a joint statement Wednesday.
“Slashing staff who are essential to the operation of the World Trade Center Health Program will devastate our ability to provide sick responders and survivors with the care they need,” Gillibrand said.
Howard, a physician and occupational health expert, served as NIOSH director from 2002 to 2008, and again from 2009 until his firing this week. President George W. Bush’s health secretary made him a special coordinator for the government’s health response to the Sept. 11 attacks. The role would later be formalized under the World Trade Center Health Program, where he has served as administrator for more than a decade.
At the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, health secretary Alex Azar reappointed Howard to a fourth six-year term as head of NIOSH.
More than 48,000 survivors of the attacks and 89,000 workers who took part in the rescue, recovery and response have enrolled in the program over its lifetime.
“He’s the father of the program,” Don Mihalek, executive vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation, said of Howard.
Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent, helped evacuate 200 of his fellow agents to New Jersey in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and has received health monitoring under the program since its inception.
“My hope is that this was an unforced error, and that on reflection Secretary Kennedy will say, ‘Wait, what did we just do,’ and fix it,” Mihalek said. Even if it was an accident, he added, “it causes needless drama.”
This is not the first time since Trump took office in January that the administration’s attempts to shrink the workforce have affected the World Trade Center Health Program. In February, the administration reversed a decision to reduce the program’s funding and staff after bipartisan pushback.