An open letter supported by 130 organizations representing the "Friends of NIOSH" was sent to leading House and Senate Republican committee chairs and ranking Democrats states in March. An excerpt:

“As Congress considers funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2025, the Friends of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) strongly urges you to provide at least $375,300,000 for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill. This funding is necessary for NIOSH to sustain current activities and further sustained investment above this level is essential to ensure NIOSH fully achieves the mission Congress has authorized and mandated the agency to pursue.

“Many of our members are employed in high-risk occupations. Rather than accept that working requires individuals to place their health and wellbeing at risk, we believe strongly that all occupations can be made safer through research, education and training. In order to maintain the health and safety of the American workforce, we ask that you include the highest level possible for NIOSH in the Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill.”

The “Friends of NIOSH” letter was signed by organizations including: AFL-CIO, AIHA, ASSP, National Safety Council, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Service Employees International Union, Society for Occupational Health Psychology, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and ten university health-related centers.

In early April, congressional committees with Department of Health and Human Services oversight were swinging into action. The House Energy and Commerce committee will be briefed by HHS staff about the department’s firing of 10,000 employees.

Representative Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said in a statement: “Congress… holds the sole authority to undertake such a vast reorganization of HHS,”

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) invited HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to testify at an April 10 hearing about the HHS reorganization, but the hearing has been delayed several weeks because the committee and Kennedy could not agree on a date.

Kennedy said last week that about 20% of terminated HHS staff may eventually need to be recalled because “personnel that should not have been cut, were cut. We're reinstating them.” It is unclear which other programs Kennedy may be planning to restore, but the HHS secretary is on the hot seat and it’s possible at least some of the NIOSH cuts could be restored by Congress.