Judge blocks Trump administration's gutting of black lung screening program
A federal judge in West Virginia has temporarily halted sweeping layoffs affecting health officials responsible for diagnosing and treating coal miners for black lung disease, dealing yet another setback to the Trump administration as it seeks to drastically limit the scope of federal health programs.
Judge Irene Berger on Tuesday ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reinstate hundreds of respiratory health workers in Morgantown, W.Va., who oversee a screening program for coal miners at risk of contracting black lung.
“Losing the services of these experienced and dedicated employees is an aspect of the irreparable harm to the miners and the public that cannot and should not be ignored,” Berger wrote.
Berger wrote Tuesday that Wiley and a handful of NIOSH officials who testified in a hearing last week persuaded her of the importance of the health screening program and a waiver called Part 90, which allows miners with early-stage black lung disease to transfer to roles out of the mines.
Berger also targeted Kennedy directly.
“Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible?” Berger wrote. “This court does not share such a belief.”
Earlier Tuesday, the administration reinstated 100 federal employees with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in West Virginia.
-ABC News' Lucien Bruggeman