Capito: ‘We’re Going To Keep Pounding This Drum’ On NIOSH Cuts

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito says she’s still working on permanently reinstating some federal workers in Morgantown. 

Capito says she’s pleased that at least some staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health have returned to work in the short term.

She said she’d continue to press President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the NIOSH team that monitors the health and safety of coal miners. 

“We’re going to keep pounding this drum here to tell the president that these functions cannot leave this facility or cannot leave the CDC either,” she said. 

NIOSH provides black lung screenings for coal miners and reviews their applications to participate in what’s called the Part 90 program. It allows miners who have been diagnosed with black lung to move to a less dusty part of the operation.

Cathy Tinney-Zara, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430, says about 40 to 45 NIOSH workers have been brought back. They are still set to be let go on June 1, she says.