National Nurses United v. Kennedy
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that oversees a vast portfolio of research, medical, and investigatory programs and services that protect the safety and health of workers in some of the highest-risk industries, including mining, firefighting, construction, and healthcare. Among other things, NIOSH evaluates the safety of worksite protective gear, such as respirators and eye and ear protection; screens miners for black lung disease; provides medical monitoring to September 11 victims and first responders; investigates worksites to identify and mitigate potential safety and health hazards; and conducts critical research into workplace hazards and best practices for addressing them. In its 50-plus years of performing these and other functions that it has been assigned by statute and regulation, NIOSH has become the nation’s premier authority in occupational safety and health.
Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, his administration began to demolish NIOSH and shut down its operations. By early May 2025, approximately 85 percent of NIOSH’s pre-inauguration staff had been fired, slated for termination, or otherwise forced out of the agency, and NIOSH had begun shutting down offices and suspending programs on which workers across America rely for their safety and health.
Partnering with attorneys at the AFL-CIO, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of a dozen unions, as well as a manufacturer of workplace safety equipment, challenging the administration’s unlawful shutdown of NIOSH’s functions. The complaint explains that where, as here, the executive branch destroys an agency that Congress created and prevents it from performing the vitally important functions that Congress directed it to carry out, the executive’s actions violate the Constitution’s separation of powers, the statutes that Congress has enacted, and the principles of reasoned decision-making that the executive is required by law to follow.