The Trump Administration is reversing its deep staffing cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, reinstating hundreds of employees.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon confirmed the reversal in an email on Jan. 13.
Niosh conducts or funds most research into U.S. workplace health and safety. Among other duties, the agency’s scientists are responsible for evaluating the risks of new chemicals, testing and certifying the effectiveness of N95 masks, monitoring mine cave-in hazards and administering the health-care program for Sept. 11 responders and survivors.
Labor advocates and businesses had warned of devastating consequences after the government moved to eliminate most of Niosh’s staff last year. The Trump Administration’s cuts upended safety research on issues from fracking to opioids, along with chemical risks in nail salons, electric-vehicle fires and terror attacks, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in September.
Last April, HHS had informed staff of plans to terminate around 90% of Niosh’s roughly 1,000 employees, eviscerating the agency.The next month, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers that he had brought back 328 of those slated for termination, but that it was a moral imperative to downsize his “metastasizing” cabinet agency.
Kennedy then proposed a budget that would eliminate around 80% of Niosh’s funding, including zeroing out its personal protective equipment certification program.
In messages viewed by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, employees who had received layoff notices were told that those were “hereby revoked.”
Because of the latest reversal, “Life-saving research is going to be able to continue,” said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, an American Federation of Government Employees local vice president and Niosh industrial hygienist in Ohio.
Major challenges remain ahead for the agency, given how severely projects were disrupted and how many staff have already moved on to other jobs, she said, “We have to rebuild.”
In an email Tuesday, HHS spokesperson Nixon wrote that the agency remained focused on enhancing all Americans’ health and well-being. “Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the nation’s critical public health functions remain intact and effective,” he wrote.
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