US Reverses Deep Cuts to Safety Agency Niosh, Reinstating Hundreds

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US Reverses Deep Cuts to Safety Agency Niosh, Reinstating Hundreds
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"[E]mployees who had received layoff notices were told that those were 'hereby revoked.'"
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Lambert here: Big if true.

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The Trump Administration is reversing its deep staffing cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, reinstating hundreds of employees.

Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon confirmed the reversal in an email Tuesday.

Last April, HHS had informed staff of plans to terminate around 90% of Niosh’s roughly 1,000 employees, eviscerating the agency.

The next month, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers that he had brought back 328 of those slated for termination, but that it was a moral imperative to downsize his “metastasizing” cabinet agency. Kennedy then proposed a budget that would eliminate around 80% of Niosh’s funding, including zeroing out its personal protective equipment certification program.

In messages viewed by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, employees who had received layoff notices were told that those were “hereby revoked.”

Kicker

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