Elon Musk’s deep cuts to the 9/11 health fund have sparked rare bipartisan outrage as Republicans join Democratic lawmakers in demanding they be restored.
The budget-slashing billionaire’s rapid fire cuts have already eliminated about 20% of the staff at the federal program that provides care to survivors of the deadliest terror attack on American soil.
Democrats quickly pushed back against the cuts, which are part of widespread reductions across many federal agencies implemented by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency with the approval of President Trump.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wrote to newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to reverse the cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that includes the 9/11 program.
“To say funding for 9/11 first responders is government waste is outrageous and insulting,” Schumer said in a statement. These brutal cuts mean layoffs for staff who have dedicated their careers to caring for our 9/11 survivors. It means delayed care for our sick first responders.”
Fired staffers and 9/11 advocates say the staff cuts will lead to delays in reimbursements and longer wait times for treatment approvals and signups for new members who may have only just become ill.
Additionally, the funding cuts will make it much more difficult to prove new medical conditions suffered by first responders are related to their service at Ground Zero and should be added to ailments covered by the program, Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said in a statement.
Tucker praised the slashed health program as “a lifeline to sickened 9/11 responders who selflessly gave so much.”
“This will hinder our efforts to provide treatment coverage for new conditions, which is a tragedy for all Americans who swore they would never forget,” Tucker added.
Now, Republican House lawmakers from the New York metro area have taken the unusual step of breaking with their party leader Trump and joining their Democratic colleagues in demanding the cuts be reversed.
“To fulfill our moral obligation to 9/11 survivors and responders, we must ensure that the program not only has the necessary resources, but also is properly administered, so that program members receive the high-quality care that they need and deserve,” reads the Republican letter, which was sent late Wednesday.
The GOP pushback was spearheaded by Long Island Rep. Anthony Garbarino and signed by New York Rep. Nick LaLota, Rep. Mike Lawler, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Chris Smith (R-N.J.).
There was no immediate response from Kennedy, Trump or Musk.
The cuts are part of a wider effort to cut probationary positions across the federal government, including about 1,300 CDC employees. That included at least 16 staffers in the 9/11 program.
Several other staffers accepted Trump’s controversial offer of buyouts, leading to the 20% estimated total cut to the 90-person staff.
Trump also eliminated funding for 9/11-related research carried out by the Fire Department of New York to compare rates of serious illness in its ranks to other big city fire departments.
The grant was deemed “nonessential,” but the Republican lawmakers pushed back against that assertion.
“This could not be further from the truth, the letter said.
The 9/11 health program serves some 137,000 people who lived or worked near Ground Zero as well as at the sites of the crashes of planes hijacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
Congress created and funded it to provide treatment for emergency workers and residents of lower Manhattan who may have been sickened by the toxic chemicals from the collapse of the World Trade Center and the pile of rubble that smoldered for months after.