FDNY unions, officials rip 'chaos' at WTC Health Program

Amid memorials for the 343 members of the FDNY who perished on 9/11 and the over 400 who have died from World Trade Center-related illnesses in the 24 years since, firefighters, union leaders, 9/11 survivor advocates and lawmakers lamented the dire outlook for the World Trade Center Health Program and the plight of those suffering from and contracting illnesses. 

At a press conference Wednesday, Andrew Ansbro and Jim Brosi, the presidents, respectively, of the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association, warned that the health program could run out of funding in 2027 and stop taking new beneficiaries in 2028. 

“It's important that we memorialize what happened but also call out the fact that the [health program] has done tremendous work for those members who were there and their families, caring for them and providing the medical care so they would not go bankrupt just taking care of their health for what they did that day,” Ansbro said. 

Lawmakers late last year struck a deal on funding to keep the program solvent through 2040, but the package was scuttled after an intervention by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Advocates have traveled to Washington, D.C., in the months since to push lawmakers to fund the program. And in February, congressional lawmakers introduced the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act that would fund the program through 2090. 

But the legislation has yet to come up for a vote, and with funding in limbo, the WTCHP continues to grow. There are more than 143,000 people now enrolled in the program, according to the Centers for Disease Control, including over 92,000 first responders.  

The number of participants in the program has spiked in recent years, with 7,600 joining in 2023, and more than 10,00 joining in 2024, the most since the program started. And new enrollees this year will likely surpass last year's: Through this June, more than 5,400 people had enrolled, according to the CDC. 

But without additional funding, the program could be turning away people by October 2028, said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the sponsors of the bill introduced in February.  

“9/11 survivors and the first responders who put their lives on the line to come to our nation’s aid deserve our support as they battle horrific health conditions borne from the toxins ingested in the days and weeks after the towers fell,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “The World Trade Center Health Program is a lifeline for these heroes. It is our responsibility as members of Congress to fully fund this program so that no survivor has to worry about losing care.” 

Leadership of the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association discussing the myriad issues facing the World Trade Center Health Program during a Sept. 10 press conference

Duncan Freeman/The Chief

'A lot of issues'

Not only are survivors facing the future prospect of denied coverage, advocates and union leaders say, but 9/11 responders and survivors today are losing out on medical coverage because of the uncertainty and disorder that has befallen the program and the Department of Health and Human Services since Trump’s election and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as HHS secretary. 

The WTCHP has so far not added new cardiovascular and autoimmune conditions and early-onset dementia — all of which are afflicting 9/11 responders and survivors as a result of their exposures at ground zero — to the list of approved conditions. It also has not approved grant funding for further research and is not investigating diseases that could potentially be added to the program list, said Benjamin Chevat, the executive director 9/11 Health Watch. New grant funding should by now have been released and requests from doctors regarding the new conditions should have been responded to in March, Chevat and other advocates have said.  

Advocates and union leaders last met with WTCHP and HHS officials in January, before Trump took office. Since then, Kennedy has instituted a communication pause, and monthly meetings that allowed advocates to communicate with government officials have stopped.  

The program is also understaffed following retirements, voluntary resignations, layoffs and interspersed rehirings, including that of Dr. John Howard, the program's administrator, who was fired and then rehired following an outcry. The program has a budgeted headcount of 138 but is estimated to have 80 staff members, advocates say.  

Brosi, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, on Wednesday called the disarray at HHS "ludicrous.” Ansbro said that the damage done to the program “needs to be fixed.” 

“It's causing a lot of issues on every aspect of it,” Ansbro said of the understaffing and communications freeze. “You'll hear from Washington that everything is back to the way it was. That's false.” 

Kennedy, who has faced pressure from lawmakers regarding what some call the chaos at HHS, wrote on his social media pages Thursday that he and President Trump “will ensure the HHS World Trade Center Health Program continues to serve our 9/11 heroes-firefighters, police, cleanup crews, survivors, and Pentagon workers. We will never forget.” 

Lawmakers have written to Kennedy asking him to address ongoing issues at the program and on Thursday morning, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said called cuts to the program “immoral.”  

“The heroes who rushed to the towers, the families who lost loved ones and have sick loved ones don’t deserve this kind of chaos, uncertainty and uncaringness,” he said in a Senate floor speech. “They don’t deserve to have their treatment put on hold because of a backlog or because of disorganization.” 

The names of 39 firefighters, fire officers and EMS workers who lost their lives to World Trade Center illnesses in the last year were added to the FDNY’s memorial inside of its headquarters this week. Firefighter John G. McCann is the most recent FDNY firefighter to die from a 9/11-related illness. McCann, who served with Ladder 26 in Harlem, died in August. 

Ansbro said Wednesday that he and McCann were longtime friends who together dug through the rubble at ground zero in the days after the attack. Another firefighter suffering from a 9/11-related illness is currently receiving hospice care, the union leaders said.

hfreeman@thechiefleader.com