NIOSH Budget: The Horror Show

I promised to analyze President Trump’s proposed FY 2026 budget for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As it turns out, it’s not so easy. NIOSH has so many different projects that are submerged into various offices and departments and budget line items that it’s hard to track everything the busy little agency does (or did.)

But I’ll give it a try.

The bottom line is that President Trump has proposed an 80% cut in the agency’s budget  – a clear statement that neither Trump nor HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. care about the health and lives of this country’s workers. The research and other programs eliminated by this draconian budget will result in more worker illness, injury and death. There no private or public sector substitute for the crucial work that NIOSH does.

Analyzing the OSHA budget was fairly easy. With OSHA, the “Enforcement” budget line item covers enforcement and inspectors, while the “Standards and Guidance” line item covers all the work or the Standards and Guidance directorate (and a piece of Construction), while the “Whistleblower” line item covers the whistleblower directorate and whistleblower staff in offices around the country. Pretty straight-forward.

The bottom line is that President Trump has proposed an 80% cut in the agency’s budget  – a clear statement that neither Trump nor HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. care about the health and lives of this country’s workers.

But with NIOSH, whereas “Mining Research” seems to cover miner health, black lung and prevention of safety hazards like roof falls, it’s hard to tell if research into respirators that miners use are covered “Mining Research,” or another respirator certification program that is being eliminated.  And NIOSH has a line item called “All Other Occupational Safety and Health Research” which is kind of a catch-all that covers hundreds of small, but vital projects covering numerous occupations and hazards in offices spread across the country.

In fact, even though I’ve been working in this area for almost 50 years, I’m amazed at the important work that NIOSH does that I had never heard about until I started researching this post.

And no one project or program operate alone. All of the programs feed each other. So it’s hard to tell how the surviving programs will succeed when so much of the rest of the agency has been destroyed.

NIOSH Legal Basis

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and NIOSH were established by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct). OSHA’s main purpose was to issue and enforce safety and health standards.  OSHA is a science-based agency. Health standards, according to the law, must “be based upon research, demonstrations, experiments, and such other information as may be appropriate. In addition to the attainment of the highest degree of health and safety protection for the employee, other considerations shall be the latest available scientific data in the field, the feasibility of the standards, and experience gained under this and other health and safety laws.”

NIOSH was established in Section 22 of the OSHAct to conduct research on occupational safety and health hazards and to educate workers and professionals in industrial hygiene, safety issues, occupational medicine and nursing, epidemiology toxicology. OSHA was then to use the research that NIOSH conducted to issue safety and health standards.

Specifically, Section 2 of the OSHAct states that the law intended

to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources…

(5) by providing for research in the field of occupational safety and health, including the psychological factors involved, and by developing innovative methods, techniques, and approaches for dealing with occupational safety and health problems;

(6) by exploring ways to discover latent diseases, establishing causal connections between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting other research relating to health problems, in recognition of the fact that occupational health standards present problems often different from those involved in occupational safety;

(7) by providing medical criteria which will assure insofar as practicable that no employee will suffer diminished health, functional capacity, or life expectancy as a result of his work experience;

NIOSH was later given the authority to “enhance and expand research as deemed appropriate on the health and safety of workers who are at risk for bioterrorist threats or attacks in the workplace, including research on the health effects of measures taken to treat or protect such workers for diseases or disorders resulting from a bioterrorist threat or attack.”

Over the past fifty-plus years, the agency has also assumed a number of other responsibilities assigned by law.  Mine safety laws of the late 60’s gave NIOSH a number of mine safety and health responsibilities (many of which were originally housed in the Bureau of Mines), and following the 2006 Sago mine disaster, Congress passed the MINER Act, giving NIOSH more responsibilities to monitor and address miner health and safety hazards.

In addition, NIOSH is the only organization that certifies the safety and effectiveness of respirators and other life-saving personal protective equipment. NIOSH also assumed responsibilities under laws providing compensation for 9/11 cleanup workers who inhaled toxic dusts, as well as cold war nuclear veterans who suffered serious and fatal health effects from building this country’s nuclear arsenal.

Obviously, not every hazard can be addressed by an OSHA standard — either because OSHA doesn’t have the resources to issue standards that address all health and safety hazards, or because some hazards — such as workplace stress or work-related opioid abuse — may not be appropriate for a standard.

NIOSH researches many of the issues for which OSHA has standards and hazards for which there are no standards. NIOSH studies, solicits and funds research and issues guidance and tools to address hazards like ergonomics, heat, workplace violence, workplace stress, drug use, workplace suicide, hazards faced by young and old workers, the hazards of nanotechnologies and many other issues. And the agency dives deeply into areas like hazards in construction and health care workplaces where OSHA standards don’t exist or need modernization.  The agency also provides grants to fund education programs across the country for occupational physicians, industrial hygienists, safety experts and others who form the backbone of this country’s health and safety infrastructure.

You can see more of the highlights of NIOSH’s first fifty years here.

Trump’s FY 2026 NIOSH Budget Proposal

The budget of NIOSH has always been tiny — peaking at $362.8 million last year (not including funding for the 9/11 and energy worker programs.)  For FY 2026, the President has proposed a budget of $73 million for NIOSH, which is a $289.6 million decrease from the FY 2025 enacted level — a cut of 80%.

The budget essentially sets in stone most of the April Fools Day Massacre that laid off 900 of NIOSH’s approximately 1,100 employees and eliminated the entire workplace safety and health research agency in one fell swoop.  Every program at NIOSH has been eliminated with the exception of mining research, the Firefighters Cancer Registry and the Mesothelioma Tissue Bank. (Programs administered by NIOSH to compensate workers who built our nuclear weapons and 9/11 recovery workers have also been funded.

The reason given in the budget for the draconian cuts are “An effort to streamline the bureaucracy, reset the proper balance between federal and state responsibilities, and save taxpayer funds.”

Or, in more honest English:  “An effort to eliminate the experts, reset the comfortable imbalance between corporate America and workers, and save money to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.”

The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), Education and Research Centers, programs to certify respirators and other personal protective equipment and “other occupational safety and health research — as well as the many hundreds of projects and programs funded by these budget items — have all been eliminated.

The official reason for the draconian cuts is “an effort to streamline the bureaucracy, reset the proper balance between federal and state responsibilities, and save taxpayer funds.”

Or, in more honest English:  “An effort to eliminate the experts, restore the comfortable imbalance between corporate America and workers, and save money to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.”

All to save a paltry $289 million –only 0.2% of the discretionary portion of the HHS budget — while the benefits of NIOSH’s work is estimated to be well over $1 billion per year.

Survivors Who Have Been Pardoned

The only programs that survive the pillaging are:

Mining research

The CDC estimates that about 20% of coal miners in Central Appalachia are suffering from black lung — the highest rate detected in more than 25 years. One in 20 of the region’s coal miners are living with the most severe form of the condition.  When the program was eliminated on April 1, the public outcry, as well as complaints by the Senators and Representatives in mining states forced the temporary rescue of NIOSH’s mine safety and health programs. This includes not only the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program which protects miners from black lung and silica related disease by providing free black lung screenings for coal miners, but also mine safety programs (roof collapses, fires, etc.), extramural mine safety grant programs (e.g. for schools of mining engineering), and possibly part of the otherwise defunct NIOSH respirator certification program. The parts of NIOSH’s Spokane and Pittsburgh offices that run NIOSH’s Mining Research Division would also live for another day.

Firefighter Cancer Registry

The Firefighter Cancer Registry, an online registry of firefighter support researchers in studying the causes of the high rate of cancer experienced by firefighters who are exposed to 200-plus carcinogenic chemicals from combustion products, would survive, but any other research NIOSH is doing into firefighter health and safety would be gone — like the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, which conducts independent investigations of firefighter line-of-duty deaths and recommends prevention methods.  Turns out the American public honors and wants to protect the brave men and women who rush into their burning houses to save their children pets.

National Mesothelioma Registry and Tissue Bank

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank collects tissue samples, demographic data, and clinical data from consented patients and shares it with the research and clinical science community to advance biomedical research for malignant mesothelioma, .

The budget also maintains funding for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act which compensates workers suffering from cancer and other diseases from their work building the country’s nuclear weapons, as well as the program that provides compensation to 9/11 recovery workers who are suffering from cancers and lung disease from their exposure to the toxic dust.

On Death Row

The following programs are eliminated:

Education and Research Centers (ERCS)

NIOSH funds 18 NIOSH Education and Research Centers (ERCs) that provide post-graduate training and research in occupational safety and health disciplines.  ERC faculty and trainees conduct research to advance occupational safety health. ERCs serve as resources for our nation’s workforce through continuing education and outreach in their region. They provide the pipeline for the workplace safety and health workforce in this country. The ERCs focus on hazards in their geographical areas. For example, the ERC at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health educates New England fishermen, as well as workers in forestry and fishing who have a higher mortality rate than mining. Workers, unions and businesses will find it harder (and more expensive) to hire health and safety professionals.

Personal Protective Equipment Technology

NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) ensures the effectiveness of personal protective equipment (PPE) — such as respirators, chemical protective gloves and other clothing — for more than 20 million U.S. workers who rely on PPE to keep them safe from on-the-job hazards.

NIOSH runs the nation’s only program that certifies respirators –- ensuring that respirators actually protect worker and that ineffective counterfeit respirators don’t infiltrate the system. The NIOSH respirator program is recognized world-wide as the gold standard and there is no replacement. Unless these experts are permanently restored, employers who rely on NIOSH certified respirators can no longer be sure their employees will have adequate respiratory protection, increasing risk of disease, workers compensation cases and litigation. And it is not clear how OSHA standards that require NIOSH-certified respirators would be enforced.

Research

All NIOSH research functions would be terminated under the President’s budget proposal. This includes the $119.5 million National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), a partnership program to stimulate innovative research and improved workplace practices. NORA is a partnership program between NIOSH and occupational safety and health working partners including labor unions, business associations, public health organizations and universities. NORA works to facilitate innovative research and improved workplace practices in high risk areas such as fishing, logging, mining, construction, oil and gas extraction, healthcare and other areas.

And the budget eliminates all other occupational safety and health research as well — with the exception of mining research.

What projects are buried in this graveyard?

Gone is research and education that addressed the highest risk industries like commercial fishing and fish processing workers, oil and gas extraction workers or firefighters or temporary workers. Nor will programs that protect young workers, chemotherapy handling for oncology nurses, hazards involving sales, delivery and long haul truckers, preventing slips in food service.

Eliminated will be NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations, a free service that evaluates U.S. workplaces for health hazards and investigates mysterious occupational disease outbreaks caused by chemicals or infectious diseases. The Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program, which conducted investigations of fatal occupational injuries has been condemned to death.

Disappeared off the street is research into the impact on workers from hazards like heat, workplace violence and avian flu. The Transportation and Warehousing program that focuses on reducing injuries, illnesses, and fatalities by studying fatigue, human-machine interaction, and obesity and chronic disease will cease to exist.

Construction workers suffer some of the highest injury, illness and fatality rates of any occupation. Although OSHA has lots of construction standards, there is much more work to be done to protect construction workers. A few examples that help construction workers include a heat app developed with OSHA, the NIOSH Lifting equation which is used around the world to prevent back injuries, and pioneering research on chemical-induced hearing loss as well as an innovative guardrail system to prevent roof falls.  And among other projects that will now sleep with the fishes is a project studying opioid use among construction workers with back injuries.

Research into the health effects of nanoparticles, occupational asthma, the financial impact of burnout and mental health in healthcare workers will no longer be studied.  And who will study the racial and ethnic disparities in the economic consequences of occupational injuries? What about the hazards of robotics, fatigue in nurses, as well as drug overdose deaths at work, health effects of cannabis on growers and workers who use cannabis in the workplace? Crickets.

Also eliminated is $7.5 million dollars that go to states each year to conduct surveillance on occupational illnesses and injuries that are missed by BLS and OSHA. For example, one study, funded by the program, looked at employer compliance with OSHA’s recordkeeping modernization that required employers to report to OSHA all amputations.

Another  recent study funded by NIOSH looked at causes and factors associated with work-related asthma, finding that physicians often fail to recognize the work-related causes, leading the early and preventable deaths of workers.

And there are far more life-saving projects that will disappear, condemning workers to preventable illnesses, injuries and deaths.

NIOSH Offices

NIOSH has offices not only in Washington DC, but also Morgantown, WV; Cincinnati, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Spokane, WA; Denver, CO; and Anchorage, AK.  What will become of those offices? Hard to say. Most of the work in most of the offices will no longer be funded.

The Morgantown office runs the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program which has been preserved. But the Morgantown office also runs the Health Effects Laboratory Division, which employs bench scientists who do basic research into new and improved techniques to assess the exposure of workers to chemical, physical, and biological hazards as well as the biological factors responsible for occupational health problems and the many other issues that underlie the nation’s knowledge of current and new occupational health hazards.

Morgantown also houses the Division of Safety Research (DSR) which conducts surveillance, intervention evaluations, and laboratory research — including research into traumatic occupational injury research, national trends of workplace homicides and fall prevention programs. DSR also runs Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program which works with the states to study fatal workplace injuries to help prevent similar deaths and injuries. Finally, although the firefighter cancer registry has been saved, DSR studies firefighter fatalities. But not anymore. That program will also disappear.

Spokane runs the Spokane Mining Research Division which will be preserved, but the rest of the office runs NIOSH Western States Division which addresses hazards and issues unique to their industries and environment in the western United States. The hazards that workers in the West face include climate extremes, working at altitude, long distance commutes, remote locations, and wildland forest fires, as well as workers in forestry, oil and gas.  NIOSH experts in the Western Division address hazards in high-risk industries like  agriculture, firefighting and commercial fishing. Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous industries in the country with long work hours, harsh weather, and moving decks with hazardous machinery and equipment. All of the work of the Western States Division will disappear. Here is just one example of the lifesaving and innovative work NIOSH does to protect commercial fishing workers, and many more here.

“Researchers in Spokane who have dedicated their careers to protecting workers across the country are being kicked to the curb because Donald Trump and his conspiracy theorist Health Secretary don’t have a clue what NIOSH does and don’t care to learn.”   — Senator Patty Murray

Senator Patty Murray who represents Washington, where the Spokane office is located, issued a report condemning the layoffs. Murray laid into RFK Jr, stating that  “Researchers in Spokane who have dedicated their careers to protecting workers across the country are being kicked to the curb because Donald Trump and his conspiracy theorist Health Secretary don’t have a clue what NIOSH does and don’t care to learn—no one should be treated like this.

The Pittsburgh office runs the Pittsburgh Mining Research Division which would be saved. But Pittsburgh also runs the NPPTL respirator and personal protective equipment programs which are gone.

The Denver and Anchorage offices also run parts of the Western States Division, which would also disappear — as well (presumably) as the offices that currently house them.

The Cincinnati office would be mostly gone with the exception of a few employees who run the World Trade Center and Energy Employees programs. The rest of Cincinnati, which runs the Division of Field Studies and Engineering (Health Hazard Evaluations), the Division of Science Integration, which does research into Nanotechnology, Occupational Health Equity, the Wholesale and Retail Trade Sector and maintains the OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool App and the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards Mobile Application would be gone.

It is also unclear what happens to the NIOSH Office of the Director which manages and administers NIOSH. Will it disappear as the remnants of NIOSH are removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then swallowed up by the new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA)? The budget is not clear on that.

FY 2026 NIOSH Budget

Current Status and Atrocities

But that’s all in the future.  Most workers and NIOSH staff are still living (and dying) in the present.  And the present is even more confusing than the future.  So what is happening now and what’s happening between now and October 1 when the new FY 2026 budget takes effect?

We’ve learned over the past few weeks that even though NIOSH job is to protect all high risk workers in the country, the fate of miners (and firefighters) has become the government’s third rail: touch upon pain of death.

The nation was horrified when all of MSHA’s mine safety and health activities were summarily terminated on April, as United Mineworkers President Cecil Roberts described.

“Let me be clear: this is not just an attack on jobs. This is an attack on the very foundation of worker safety in the United States of America. The dismantling of the Respiratory Disease Division at NIOSH is not just a bureaucratic shuffle. It is the elimination of our nation’s leading defense against black lung disease and other respiratory illnesses that afflict miners and workers across this country.

“This division is responsible for developing life-saving coal dust and silica monitors. It runs the miner X-ray surveillance program. It oversees MSHA’s Part 90 program — a program that literally exists to save the lungs and lives of American coal miners.

“Now, with the stroke of a pen and the cowardice of an evening layoff notice, those protections are being stripped away. Who is going to monitor dust levels in our mines? Who will ensure the next generation of miners doesn’t end up with the same black lungs as their fathers and grandfathers?

Partial Reprieve

Somewhat cooler heads, especially in the courts — prevailed a few weeks later. Turns out that although the White House doesn’t care about whether workers live or die and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on in his Department, some Republican Senators, like West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito made it clear that she didn’t appreciate sacrificing her constituents to the Gods of DOGE, or shutting down NIOSH offices in her state.  Also, Capito chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. This is one of the most powerful positions in the Senate and a smart White House might want to listen to such a person.

Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota criticized cuts at the NIOSH Spokane Mining Research Division, saying agency downsizing had resulted in cancellation of a $1.2 million grant to improve underground mining safety for the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in his district.

Congressional pressure as well as enormously bad publicity in the media about dying miners helped turn the tide.

The Court Steps In: Full Restoration

Meanwhile, the courts have stepped in to save some of the life-saving functions of NIOSH. Harry Wiley, a 38-year veteran Kanawha County coal miner, filed a lawsuit on April 7, on behalf of himself and others potentially affected by the elimination of the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program which studies respiratory disease in miners and provides health screenings and information, particularly about black lung. Wiley is represented by attorneys including Sam Petsonk.

The lawsuit argued that the CWHSP — which provide a medical screening and epidemiological surveillance program, along with the right to transfer to a less dusty job if they begin developing early signs of occupational lung disease — was established by federal mine safety statutes since 1969 and cannot, therefore, be unilaterally terminated by the President.

“Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible? This Court does not share such a belief.”  — Judge Irene Berger

On May 13, District Judge Irene Berger ruled that Wiley had enough evidence to prove that layoffs at the NIOSH Respiratory Health Division (RHD) would cause “irreparable harm” to those affected by black lung disease” and granted a preliminary injunction to reverse the federally ordered job cuts endangering black lung screening.

The Respiratory Health Division focuses on preventing work-related respiratory diseases and improving worker health.   Berger was not buying RFK’s assertion that the “pause” in NIOSH’s activities would not cause harm if miners were unable to access their Part 90 rights (Under Part 90, coal miners who have already developed a pneumoconiosis can exercise rights that allow them to continue working in healthier parts of the mine.).

Mr. Wiley has the right to continue submitting medical documentation for review by NIOSH. The fact that he has been diagnosed with black lung elsewhere suggests that it is likely that submission of that documentation and/or participation in additional screening would result in a finding that he has evidence of black lung and is eligible for the Part 90 option. Because the CWHSP is closed and its staff placed on leave pending their termination dates, he cannot access those services. Lacking a Part 90 letter, he continues to be exposed to coal dust at work. As the testimony before the Court made clear, that dust exposure will cause his disease to progress until it becomes debilitating. Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible? This Court does not share such a belief.

She ordered the

full restoration of the NIOSH Respiratory Health Division including health surveillance through the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program and the job transfer program. Further, in the event of reorganization, the Court ORDERS that there be no pause, stoppage or gap in the protections and services mandated by Congress in the Mine Act and the attendant regulations for the health and safety of miners.

Berger gave Kennedy 20 days to comply

Thanks largely to the enormously bad publicity generated by miners coughing their lungs out as their medical support mechanisms were pulled out from under them, as well as great organizing work by AFGE and laid off NIOSH staffers, and Capito’s discussions with RFK Jr. and the White House —  and, of course, the court decision —  HHS partially reversed course and temporarily recalled of some NIOSH staff right before RFK Jr’s testimony in the House and Senate.

HHS returned around 300 NIOSH employees workers employed in Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program and the Fire Fighters’ Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program at the beginning of May, and following Judge Wiley’s May 13 order, HHS rescinded the layoff notifications for approximately 300 NIOSH workers—out of a total workforce of 1000 — in the Office of the Director, the Respiratory Health Division, the Division of Safety Research, the Division of Compensation and Analysis Support, the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, and part of the Division of Field Studies and Surveillance.

But all of the staff in the Spokane Mining Research Division and Pittsburgh Mining Research Division were RIFed—none were restored in when HHS brought back 300 NIOSH employees — and all are still subject to the RIF notices what went out on April 1 for management and supervisors and May 2 for researchers. These NIOSH employees run labs in Pittsburgh and Spokane that focus on preventing safety and health issues in mining from things that cause immediate death to things that cause health issues over time, and everything in between: explosions, fires, roof falls (cave ins), powered haulage, vehicle runovers, dust exposure, noise exposure, musculoskeletal disorders, and mine escape and rescue. No other organization within or outside the federal government conducts such widespread mining safety and health research.

NIOSH Director John Howard, who was also reinstated after being fired, sent an email to staff saying that “While we celebrate with those who received a rescission letter from HHS, I am mindful that others did not. I am hopeful that we can continue to make the case for reinstating everyone at NIOSH.”

HHS leadership, on the other hand, was not conceding graciously.  Thomas Nagy, the head of human resources for HHS, announced that same day that for each NIOSH job saved by the courts, another HHS employee would be laid off.  Kind of a bureaucratic version of Sophie’s Choice.

But It’s Not Enough

Problems and puzzles, nevertheless, remain.

As I mentioned above, all of the NIOSH Mining Program employees in Pittsburgh and Spokane are still subject to the RIF notices is currently in the current status of “administrative leave” until the courts make a ruling. If the RIFs continue, these employees will be axed in spite of the proposed 2026 AHA budget.  And it’s unclear what the new fiscal year will bring come October 1. Many of the NIOSH employees restored by Judge Berger’s order are not working under budget lines that will be funded after the end of the current fiscal year if Trump’s budget request goes through. In other words, we have current NIOSH employees (many of whom are still RIF’d),  with no future funding.

And many of the workers in jobs that will be funded in the next fiscal year starting October 1 still face layoff notices as of July 2.  So will they be laid off July 2 and rehired October 1 (or whenever the new budget takes effect?)  Or in October, will we have funding for offices with no workers?

Who knows?

Meanwhile, Back in the Mines

On June 2, exactly 20 business days later, NIOSH Director John Howard submitted a written certification that they were in compliance with Berger’s preliminary injunction and order to reinstate employees. But despite the certification, miner advocates claim that the program has still not been fully restored:

The agency’s mobile X-ray unit is parked behind an office building in Morgantown because there are no funds to operate it. And the agency is missing contract workers to read chest X-rays.

Sam Petsonk, an attorney who represented a Kanawha County coal miner in a lawsuit against U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says NIOSH is not in compliance with a May 13 preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger.

“We have concerns that NIOSH has not complied with the preliminary injunction, and, more importantly, has not complied with its duties under the mine act to provide all these necessary programs and services to miners,” Petsonk said.

And although some of the coal health staff has returned, there is still a problem getting contracts approved for technicians who can read X-rays.:

Once NIOSH has determined a miner has black lung through a series of X-rays, they can qualify for a job transfer under what’s called the Part 90 Program. Part 90 enables miners to work in a less dusty environment and allows them to continue working while protecting their health.

Lisa Emery, a respiratory therapist in Oak Hill, West Virginia, and director of the black lung clinics program for New River Health, says there are only two NIOSH technicians reading X-rays, creating a bottleneck.

“It’ll allow them to be removed from the dust and get in a less dusty environment, keep their same rate of pay and be able to continue to feed their families,” Emery said. “And that’s what’s really important, and that’s why they have these jobs, is to make a living and feed their families.”

Emery says the Part 90 transfer is a federally mandated right under laws Congress enacted.

She says she has seen miners in their 30s and 40s developing the most severe form of black lung, some needing lung transplants.

There is no cure for black lung. The Part 90 Program enables younger miners to keep working.

“Their option is not to retire,” she said. “Their option is to remove themselves from the dust and slow the progression of their disease and continue to work.”

What About Everyone Else?

It’s great that most coal miner protections are being restored, but as I explained above, protecting coal miners’ lungs is far from the only life-saving work that NIOSH does.

“I welcome the return of some NIOSH scientists, but this isn’t the NIOSH that all American workers need,” said Dr. Robert Harrison, who directs the Occupational Health Program at the University of California San Francisco.

He said the cuts continue to jeopardize the agency’s mission to keep workers in many other industries safe — from construction and agriculture to warehouses and restaurants.

“All of these workers need the advice and protections that NIOSH gives,” he says.

Among the people being brought back are staff involved with investigating workplace hazards like cancer clusters, testing and certifying personal protective equipment and addressing respiratory health in coal miners and other workers, according to interviews with several NIOSH employees and an internal email from the agency’s director.

What is to be done?

Congress, not the President, ultimately has the final say in the federal budget. At in the Senate, 60 votes are needed to pass the budget, so the Democrats have some leverage.

We should get a first look at what Republicans in the House of Representatives wants to do next month when the House Appropriations Committee releases its draft budget.  A subcommittee markup is scheduled for July 21, followed by a full committee markup on July 24. The Republican House budget is always really bad, but it contains so much crap in it (covering not only Labor, but also HHS), that it’s even hard for Republicans to pass.

So the name of the game at this point is to influence your legislators — especially if you’re located in a state with a NIOSH office, or in a state or Congressional district that has members of the Senate or House Appropriations committees that determine the budget. But don’t stop there. Every legislator needs to hear about NIOSH.

But legislators do not determine how to vote by phone calls and emails alone. They also read the newspaper and listen to those in their districts who might lose their jobs or their lives due to Congressional (and Presidential) malpractice.   As I said above, cutting support for mine workers and firefighters seems to be the third rail of the HHS budget. Our job is now to include all workers on that third rail.

So talk to reporters in your town — especially if you or your family members or friends work in jobs that might be affected by these budget cuts. Stories of workers who have gotten sick or injured on the job are always more effective than simple expressions of outrage. (Although simple outrage is good too.)

Stay in touch with your union, your worker rights groups and this space for updates and action items.

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Update: This post was updated to add information about NIOSH-funded state surveillance programs.