AIHA Restore NIOSH Advocacy Campaign
UPDATED: January 22, 2026
- Following last year’s April 1st Reduction-In-Force (RIF) notification to some 85+% NIOSH workers, AIHA launched a series of grassroots advocacy campaigns to reinstate the agency. In May of last year, over 300 NIOSH workers had their jobs reinstated across various NIOSH divisions, including restoration of staffing to maintain the Respirator Approval Program.
- Assuming a baseline staffing of about 1000 (excluding the World Trade Center program) as of Jan 1st, approximately 425 employees remained RIF’d on administrative leave. Many career federal workers opted to take early retirement or found jobs elsewhere, thus resulting in the loss of decades of institutional knowledge.
- Over the course of 2025, multiple lawsuits against the federal government were filed contesting the legality of the RIFs (one more notable is National Nurses United v RFK, Jr.) . It remains unclear if and when any of these cases will be resolved. AIHA signed on as an amicus brief to another ( State of New York vs RFK, Jr.)
- On January 13th, we learned that RIF notifications issued to NIOSH employees have been reversed. Broad reinstatement of NIOSH is now underway (excluding those who have separated on their own). This applies across all divisions, including the Office of Extramural Coordination & Special Projects, which funds ERCs, TPGs, etc. Based on what we know thus far, each division is currently working to contact staff to confirm that reinstatement notices have been received. Given that it has been more than nine months since the original RIF notifications were issued, it will likely take some time to fully assess the status of personnel across divisions, review priority needs, and functional capacity.
- These successes show that our collective advocacy has been effective! However, we’ve learned a critical lesson that we must continue to remind our elected officials of the importance of NIOSH as we cannot assume the agency is immune to future cuts.
- In terms of FY26 funding:
- We were pleased to see the Senate Appropriations Committee’s labor-health bill contain full funding for NIOSH at $363.8M (as well as OSHA and MSHA) for FY 2026.
- In comparison, the House has earmarked $312.7M (a 14% reduction). It is unclear specifically which programs would be eliminated or reduced under their version.
- We are now awaiting passage of the final negotiated bicameral FY26 labor-health bill, which will detail funding for the agency for the rest of this fiscal year. We anticipate final passage by end of January.
To this end, we’ll be converting our former “Restore NIOSH” campaign into a “Preserve NIOSH” campaign. Building on prior successes, this campaign will continue to inform and empower members and local sections to educate their elected officials about the importance of NIOSH (with a focus on influencing those serving on labor-health congressional committees). Look for further information about this in the weeks ahead.
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