CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 100 federal workers at Morgantown NIOSH are being called back to work.
Members of the state’s congressional delegation heard from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tuesday.
“My understanding from @SecKennedy is that over 100 Morgantown employees will be returning to the job permanently,” U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito posted on X. “The health and safety of our WV workers, including our miners, is of the utmost importance and I will always advocate for their wellbeing.”
As Chairman of the Labor-H @AppropsGOP Subcommittee, I was proud to advocate for the critical work that’s done at NIOSH in Morgantown, WV.
My understanding from @SecKennedy is that over 100 Morgantown employees will be returning to the job permanently.
The health and safety of…
— Shelley Moore Capito (@SenCapito) May 13, 2025
Second District Congressman Riley Moore said he got the news just before a scheduled appearance Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
“Nearly 100 employees of NIOSH got notified that they are coming back—NIOSH is coming back and their jobs are going to be back and retained in full—so NIOSH is coming back,” Moore said.
Capito made an appearance on MetroNews Middway Tuesday afternoon. She said that she was pleased the news.
“I was very pleased, there’s still going to be some people that lose their jobs and that’s unfortunate, but I do believe this is a much better picture for Morgantown but also for our workers for disease control and prevention and inhalation and all those kinds of things that they do at NIOSH,” Capito said
Several hundred federal workers were notified in early April they would be losing their jobs because of work done by the Elon Musk-led DOGE efforts to cut federal spending. The workers were told their jobs were unnecessary and duplicative. Many of the jobs are connected to screening and testing of workers employed in areas like coal mining.
Capito has been talking to Kennedy’s office about the return of jobs to NIOSH’s health screening program that checks miners for things like Black Lung.
“The health and safety of our WV workers, including our miners, is of the utmost importance and I will always advocate for their wellbeing,” Capito said Tuesday.
Rep. Moore said he believed the callbacks were for those associated with the screening program and maybe others.
“They are no longer RIFed and they are coming back to NIOSH and NIOSH is going to be open again. We are going to start work back there again,” Moore said on “Talkline.”
AFGE Local 3430 President Cathy Tinney-Zara said she got word from Capito’s office Tuesday at around noon but hadn’t yet heard from any workers who had gotten a call about going back to work.
“I don’t have any further information on who those 110 persons are, what exactly called back means but that’s exactly what I was told,” Tinney-Zara said.
Rep. Moore said Secretary Kennedy is scheduled to appear a House subcommittee that he sits on Wednesday.
“He’s going to testify, and we are going to discuss this in my question session with him,” Moore said.
Moore credits the West Virginia congressional delegation for working in concert to get jobs restored.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger heard testimony last week from a pair of southern West Virginia coal miners who asked her to stop the DOGE cuts at NIOSH so Black Lung screen efforts can continue. Berger hasn’t announced a ruling associated with the case.