In April 2025, around 900 mining-related researchers were downsized from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offices in Morgantown, W.Va., Pittsburgh, Pa. and Spokane, Wash. According to reports from Bloomberg last week, former NIOSH employees received communications from Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reversing the staffing cuts eight months after initial layoffs.
The layoffs in April followed the HHS’s announcement of a dramatic restructuring program that would downsize by 10,000 full-time employees and significantly reduce NIOSH staffing levels. After a tirade of public backlash, more than 100 federal employees at the Morgantown, W.Va., office were reinstated in May, resuming the office’s Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP), which offers periodic black lung screenings at no cost to coal miners.
It’s unclear which employees and divisions were reinstated, as NIOSH has yet to release an official statement regarding the decision.
Source: www.coalage.com
