WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia Second District Congressman Riley Moore says the Trump administration made a mistake in cutting hundreds of federal jobs at NIOSH in Morgantown.
“That, by the way, is a mistake that we are working to roll back,” Moore said during an appearance Monday on MetroNews “Talkline.” “We do need NIOSH. We are talking to the administration there and that’s something that we are going to fix.”
Approximately 400 workers at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s Morgantown office were told on April 1 their jobs were either unnecessary or redundant. A combine of bargaining unit workers, management and scientists lost their jobs. It’s almost everyone in the Morgantown office.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters on April 3 some of the 10,000 jobs cut in DHS were a mistake.
“Personnel that should not have been cut, were cut. We’re reinstating them. And that was always the plan. Part of the — at DOGE, we talked about this from the beginning, is we’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstated, because we’ll make mistakes,” Kennedy said.
Moore said NIOSH does key work in the area of the health and safety of coal miners.
“We need that for our miners and that’s something that we are going to address,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of moving parts and pieces to this and I do think that’s something we are going to be able to get back funded in a way where we can support our coal miners.”
Moore said research that NIOSH does including its work with respirators and the measurement of coal dust are key functions that must continue.
Meanwhile, Moore said he remains confident in the work that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has done in cutting government spending. He said it will begin to pay off in budget work the U.S. House is about ready to start.
“I think we’re on a good track here. We’re going to go through our appropriations bill and and to be clear, this is going to be the DOGE appropriations bill,” Moore said. “Congress is obviously going to have its say on what is to be funded.”