Baumgartner, Northwest Republicans ask RFK Jr. to reopen NIOSH worker safety office in Spokane

WASHINGTON – Six Republicans who represent Washington, Idaho and Oregon in Congress asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday to reopen a Spokane office dedicated to the safety of workers in hardrock mining, wildland firefighting, commercial fishing and other dangerous professions.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane sent a letter asking Kennedy to reverse the Trump administration’s decision in March to terminate most employees at the Spokane Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH. It was signed by Rep. Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside, Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho Falls, Rep. Cliff Bentz of Eastern Oregon and both of Idaho’s senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.

“NIOSH’s Spokane lab is the backbone of innovation and safety in the hardrock mining industry for the Western United States,” Baumgartner said in a statement. “Shutting it down, without a plan to reassign its vital research, would be a mistake and a disservice to the Trump administration’s America First energy and mineral strategy.”

According to researchers at the lab who have spoken to The Spokesman-Review, the facility effectively has been shut down since early May, when most employees were notified by email that they had been placed on administrative leave and would be terminated July 2. Courts have put that termination on hold along with the mass firing of other federal workers, leaving projects that promise to protect miners, oil and gas workers, and others on hold.

In their letter, the Republicans voiced support for President Donald Trump’s agenda and argued that the Spokane Research Lab’s work is vital to the very industries the president has said he wants to support, including oil and gas, mining and commercial fisheries.

“We are all advocates for the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and support President Trump’s efforts to streamline and right-size the federal workforce,” they wrote. “However, it is helpful to remember that the SRL has a history of integrity and vital contributions to health and safety in western hardrock mines, making it an important piece in President Trump’s Energy Dominance agenda.”

The lawmakers said they found it “very concerning” when they began receiving reports in April that NIOSH’s Spokane lab would be closed and its research functions wouldn’t be reassigned to other NIOSH facilities or a different federal agency.

“If we are to increase the domestic production of minerals critical to our economic and national security, the research performed by NIOSH becomes more important than ever,” they wrote. “We urge you to retain the NIOSH SRL and its employees immediately so they can continue their vital work supporting America’s hardrock miners and the mineral industry.”

A spokeswoman for Baumgartner, Isabela Schandlbauer, said the Spokane congressman’s office sought the signatures of Washington Democrats before sending the letter, which praises Trump’s policies, but none signed it. Democrats, including Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington, have previously called on Kennedy to restore the jobs at NIOSH.

After Kennedy eliminated nearly all positions at NIOSH following an executive order Trump signed that established the Department of Government Efficiency and empowered billionaire Elon Musk to lead the supposed cost-cutting initiative, the HHS secretary restored some of those jobs in West Virginia and Ohio.

That pattern raises questions about disparities in the Trump administration’s treatment of states with Democratic and Republican majorities. In their letter, the GOP lawmakers note that restoring jobs in Ohio and West Virginia but not in Washington could “create the very real perception that Western United States mining health and safety issues, particularly those of the metal and non-metal sector, are being diminished in favor of eastern United States coal mining health and safety issues.”

Sen. Jim Justice, a West Virginia Republican, told The Spokesman-Review on June 17 that he spoke directly with officials at the White House to get the jobs in his state restored.

That same day, GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, whose state lost a $1.2 million mine safety grant from the Spokane office, said in a brief interview that his staff is working through a list of about 500 jobs and contracts the Trump administration eliminated that they’re trying to get restored in South Dakota alone.

In their letter, the Northwest Republicans noted that the Spokane lab has support from the industries its researchers work to make safer and that it “is one of the lowest-cost laboratories NIOSH operates.”

“It is therefore a facility to be emulated, not shuttered,” they said. “The workers there have earned the right to be restored to their positions and take on more research.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions on Tuesday. After saying in a May 20 statement that Kennedy “has been working hard to ensure that the critical functions under NIOSH remain intact,” HHS has not responded to subsequent questions and requests for comment.