Researchers working on the Career Firefighter Health Study received notice last week of the CDC contract’s termination.
POLITICO
By Maya Kaufman | 02/20/2025
NEW YORK — News that the Trump administration canceled a $257,000 federal contract for research on 9/11-related diseases drew widespread condemnation Thursday among New York Democrats.
The contract would have paid for data processing work to compare cancer incidence rates among firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center toxins to firefighters in three other U.S. cities who were not exposed.
Researchers working on the project — the Career Firefighter Health Study — received notice of the contract’s termination last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to FDNY officials.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who is considering a campaign for governor, zeroed in on the role of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency apparatus.
The cancellation is listed on DOGE’s self-proclaimed wall of receipts for its efforts to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” under an executive order by President Donald Trump.
“‘Never forget’ isn’t a slogan, it’s a promise to our firefighters, police officers, and all the first responders who ran into danger on 9/11,” Hochul wrote Thursday on X, which is owned by Musk. “We’ll fight like hell to stop Elon Musk and his cronies from breaking that promise.”
New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said in a statement that the move “will hinder our efforts to provide treatment coverage for new conditions, which is a tragedy for all Americans who swore they would never forget.” The contract’s cancellation was previously reported by The New York Times.
The researchers are using the study’s results to inform their broader efforts to prove new conditions as 9/11-related, making treatment for them eligible for coverage by the World Trade Center Health Program.
Oren Barzilay, president of the union FDNY EMS Local 2507, said yanking the funds is a “detrimental decision.”
“Thousands of FDNY EMTs and firefighters responded that day and hundreds are dealing with 9/11 illnesses and diseases still being discovered over 20 years later,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Taking away research benefiting their health is severe and un-American to a community that we promise every day to never forget.”