Some federal workers focused on 'black lung' screenings are reinstated but still face June termination

The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go.

The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go. 

Those terminations could threaten critical programs used to screen for health issues in workers with toxic exposures, including 9/11 first responders, according to people who work on or benefit from the programs. Some workers who benefit from those programs have expressed fears that conditions such as cancer or lung disease could go undetected as a result.  

Concerns about the future of those programs began earlier this month when the Department of Health and Human Services effectively gutted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), drastically cutting the headcount of an agency that has been around for 55 years. The move was part of a broader plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, including a massive restructuring of federal health agencies that called for the termination of roughly 20,000 full-time employees. 

In an agencywide email sent Wednesday, NIOSH’s director, John Howard, acknowledged “a significant number of [reduction in force] notices sent to staff” and said some staffers were brought back from administrative leave this week as part of “a temporary arrangement to help complete our obligations.” The staffers had received notices on April 1 that they had been placed on leave, with official termination dates set for June. 

Howard himself received a termination notice in early April but returned to his post after bipartisan opposition from members of Congress regarding his dismissal.