Trump administration accused of siphoning money away from 9/11 fund

[Eric]

Just when you thought you've seen the lowest Trump can go we're now learning that his administration took nearly $4 million from a NY program that treats firefighters and medics.

From the INDEPENDENT

The Trump administration has been accused of siphoning almost $4m from a program that treats New York firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses.

The Treasury Department stopped payments almost four years ago to the FDNY World Trade Centre Health Program, according to reporting by The Daily News, with no reason given.

Payments to the program were authorised by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, but the Treasury began to keep some of the money.

Dr David Prezant, the program’s director and FDNY’s chief medical officer, told the publication that there has been no official explanation as to why the payments were stopped and no notification that it was going to happen.

 

[lizkat]

The cited Daily News piece says that after an inquiry from a local Congressman in the metro area, "the answer" to questions about why the Treasury was not funding the full amount to the NYFD program was that the Feds had some unrelated beef with the city about some Medicare funding.

OK money itself is fungible but allocations of certain federal revenues to particular programs is a whole other story.

Also, this isn't totally on the Trump administration since the piece noted that the first less than full allocation to the FD program occurred in 2016.