Republican Senator asks RFK Jr. to save health unit that protects coal miners

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito asked U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. on Monday to reinstate programs aimed at protecting coal miners that were hit with layoff notices.

Capito, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, said the work done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of HHS, is critical to her coal-producing state and does not duplicate any other government program.

HHS announced widespread layoffs on April 1, including around 875 of NIOSH's roughly 1,000-strong workforce.

Around 500 of those employees, who were from the Morgantown, West Virginia, office, worked on developing products and practices to protect coal miners and ran a surveillance program to detect cases of black lung disease, which is on the rise in central Appalachia.

"I am concerned that the RIFs (reductions in force) at NIOSH will undermine the vital health programs important to so many West Virginians. I urge you to bring back the NIOSH employees immediately so they can continue to support our nation’s coal industry," she wrote in a letter sent to RFK Jr.

She said she recently met with RFK Jr., who she said agreed with the fact that NIOSH's work is unique.

Reuters reported that the cuts to NIOSH have removed key federal protections available to miners, who are increasingly susceptible to a more severe form of black lung disease caused by exposure to silica dust.

A decades-old program operated by NIOSH to detect lung disease in coal miners has been suspended. Related programs to provide x-rays and lung tests at mine sites have also shut down.

The loss of staff at NIOSH has also crippled black lung-afflicted miners' ability to get relocated with pay as part of the Part 90 program.

Capito warned that HHS will begin the process of decommissioning the labs, including the West Virginia location, in the coming days, which would cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Restarting them would also add additional costs, she said.

"I believe in the President’s vision to right size our government, but I do not think eliminating the NIOSH coal programs and research will accomplish that goal," she wrote.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Mark Porter)