As of mid-May, so many efforts are underway to restore NIOSH funding and staffing (at least eight listed here) that you need a scorecard to keep up. “I remain optimistic that we will be able to restore at least part of NIOSH but I don’t think in the prior form,” says one source involved in lobbying efforts who spoke anonymously to express a prediction. NIOSH is slated to be part of the new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

According to a leaked internal budget document outlining the White House’s proposed budget cuts, staff reductions, reorganizations and policy changes for fiscal year 2026, AHA would only fund the Firefighter Cancer Registry, the National Mesothelioma Registry & Tissue Bank, World Trade Center Health Program, and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act mandatory programs. Funding for all other NIOSH programs would be discontinued.

Here is ISHN’s overview on lawsuits and lobbying to rescue NIOSH occurring on eight fronts:

1. In San Francisco, US district judge Susan Illston has ruled that the Trump administration must temporarily halt its scorched-earth government downsizing because Congress did not authorize the administration to carry out massive staffing cuts and restructuring federal agencies.

Illston wrote that “the executive branch cannot lawfully implement large-scale reductions in the federal workforce without the participation of Congress.”

The temporary stoppage of “reductions in force” layoffs, issued May 9, is for 14 days. Illuston has scheduled a hearing May 22 to consider a longer-lasting permanent injunction. She said a group of unions, non-profits and local governments -- the plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- are likely to succeed on the merits of some of their claims, including suffering irreparable harm if the court does not agree that Trump, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management exceeded their authority by triggering the layoffs and also violated administrative law.

Judge Illston specifically mentioned NIOSH and its Pittsburgh office, which researches health hazards facing miners, as examples of the potential negative impact of layoffs – 221 of the department’s 222 employees were terminated.

2. On May 5, the attorneys general of nineteen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Rhode Island against Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleging that mass layoffs of HHS departmental staff have caused “severe, complicated, and potentially irreversible” consequences for the plaintiff states.

The complaint details the impacts of the loss of a range of programs overseen or funded by NIOSH. More than 870 NIOSH employees, including Dr. John Howard, the agency’s director, received termination notices on April 1. Nearly all remaining staff were laid off on May 2.

The complainants argue that the layoffs are arbitrary and capricious because HHS provided no reasoned basis or explanation for its decision to dismantle agencies performing essential public health and human services work, and failed to consider the consequences of their action.

Complainants are asking the court for preliminary and permanent injunctions reversing implementation of the layoffs.

3. A coalition of 28 labor unions is calling on congressional lawmakers to “fulfill the promise of a safe job” by helping in the effort to reverse staffing cuts at NIOSH. The letter states: “Safe jobs are a fundamental right for every worker in America, and NIOSH is necessary to make this right a reality.”

The letter concludes: “NIOSH’s work is both vast and far-reaching… we urge you to take immediate action by sending letters and making phone calls to ask President Trump to reinstate all NIOSH divisions and their staff. The cost of inaction will be severe and excruciating for individuals and society. Safe jobs are a fundamental right for every worker in America and NIOSH is necessary to make this right a reality.”

4. In early April the “Friends of NIOSH” — a coalition of 460 industry, labor, professional, education and scientific organizations dedicated to research and prevention of occupational injuries and illness -- wrote to key Senate and House leaders urging Congress “to do everything possible to reverse… misguided NIOSH cuts immediately so that NIOSH’s vital mission continues, and its workforce can maintain efforts to keep Americans safe and well.”

5. The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has posted its “deep concern over… sweeping layoffs that would effectively eliminate nearly the entire workforce of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), including the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL).

“These unprecedented cuts would dismantle the only federal laboratory responsible for certifying respirators used by more than 50 million American workers. Without NIOSH, there is no federal mechanism for respiratory protection certification…”

ISEA has signed a joint letter to Congressional leadership calling for an immediate reversal of the proposed NIOSH cuts; launched a social media campaign focused on Capitol Hill to reinforce NIOSH’s critical role; and is actively pursuing meetings with Congressional leaders and senior officials to push for reinstating NIOSH and the continuation of its mission.

6. AIHA, the American Industrial Hygiene Association, has been meeting with both Senate and House Appropriations committees and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee staffers, according to Executive Director Larry Sloan. 

7. The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has been working with its Government Affairs Committee and has consulted legal experts to understand the intricacies of dismantling NIOSH, according to President Pam Walaski. “The cuts are not just administrative — they impact the essential public safety and health infrastructure such as the testing and certification of respirators,” she says.

"We sent letters to the administration and legislators outlining the impacts to workplace safety and health and urging action to preserve essential programs. We have encouraged our members to contact their lawmakers, particularly those on the Senate HELP Committee, to stress the real-world consequences of these widespread cuts to worker safety and health.”

8. Judge Irene C. Berger, of the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, on May 13 granted a coal miner’s request to compel the HHS to restore all staffers in NIOSH’s Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program (WHSP) while a legal challenge to those firings proceeds. Berger said that only Congress could make changes to a program it authorized and that shutting down the program would cause irreparable harm to coal miners facing black lung disease.

The WHSP screens coal miners for black lung disease. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed he reinstated 328 NIOSH employees working for the WHSP, and personnel in Cincinnati and the World Trade Center Health Program.

Harry Wiley, a Kanawha County, West Virginia coal miner who was diagnosed with early stage black lung, brought the lawsuit against HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month.