US health department to reverse federal layoffs of coal safety workers, senator says
Source: Reuters
May 13, 2025 6:08 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - Over 100 federal employees who screen coal miners for black lung disease and research other respiratory disease who had been terminated as part of sweeping government layoffs have had their jobs restored permanently, West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito announced on Tuesday.
Capito said in a statement she got an assurance from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that the Department of Health and Human Services reversed the terminations of employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown, West Virginia. "My understanding from Secretary Kennedy is that over 100 Morgantown employees will be returning to the job permanently," she said in a statement.
NIOSH runs a coal mine health surveillance unit that had effectively been shuttered since February amid sweeping layoffs led by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, even as a resurgence of deadly black lung disease has affected at least one out of five coal miners - and increasingly workers as young as their 30s.
Reuters had reported that those potential job cuts, as well as cuts at the Mine Health Safety Administration, were putting coal miners at risk, even as President Donald Trump called for a revival of the industry. The status of NIOSH workers had been in flux, with some workers brought out of administrative leave earlier this month, only to be notified days later that they were permanently terminated. Capito said she had several conversations with Kennedy urging him to save the program.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/us-health-department-reverse-federal-layoffs-coal-safety-workers-senator-says-2025-05-13/
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