RFK Jr. Grilled Over HHS Cuts, Including World Trade Center Health Program

Concerns Over HHS and WTC Health Program Cuts

• 🎯 First responders and New York lawmakers are demanding answers from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
• ⚠️ Specifically, concerns are raised about the impact on the World Trade Center Health Program.
• 📉 It is stated that Kennedy has already eliminated one-quarter of the HHS workforce.

Impact on First Responders

• 💔 FDNY Lieutenant Michael Okonnell, who worked at ground zero, has been forced into early retirement due to serious lung and autoimmune diagnoses.
• 🗣️ He emotionally pleaded with the HHS secretary, stating, "Your job is to protect as we did on that day and you're not doing your job. The truth is people are dying."
• 💊 ESU first responder Michael Negron, who spent six months at ground zero, also retired due to severe illness, including COPD and asthma.

Demands for Program Continuity

• 🤝 Survivors and lawmakers are seeking concrete commitments that the jobs of Dr. John Howard and 16 World Trade Center Health Program workers, whose layoffs were rescinded, will be guaranteed.
• ❓ A key demand is confirmation that the staffing of the World Trade Center Health Program will return to its full strength prior to Kennedy's tenure.
• 🗣️ Kennedy stated, "That program will continue. It will be continuity in that program."

Broader Funding Concerns

• 📉 Advocates express dismay that the future of the World Trade Center Health Program is in question, calling it a "crushing blow" if it were to falter.
• 🏥 The program is described as essential for the well-being of survivors, with one stating, "if it wasn't for the World Trade Center Health Program, I probably wouldn't be here."
• 💰 Kennedy was also questioned about HHS cutting $11 billion in federal funding for states.