New York Lawmakers: Trump Administration Budget Plan Could Endanger 9/11 Responders' Health

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Members of the New York City Congressional delegation on Sunday urged a rollback of a Trump administration plan that they said would risk the health of first responders who worked during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks – and others who were made ill by the toxins released that day.

Long Island U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-New York) had harsh words for budget director Mick Mulvaney. King said Mulvaney opposed the World Trade Center Health Program as a congressman representing South Carolina, and is now trying to split it apart from the National Institute from Occupational Safety and Health.

Under the plan, NIOSH will be separated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the World Trade Center Health Program will stay behind with the CDC, lawmakers said.

"To have him making this proposal really, really makes me even more suspicious," King said.

King joined his Democratic colleagues, including U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) of New York City, in opposing the plan – which would separate the World Trade Center Health Program from many of the people who run it.

"We made a promise to always care for those who were there for us that day – that horrible day – and in the weeks and months that followed," Maloney said.

Maloney called the Mulvaney plan "a new low, even for the Trump administration."

King, Maloney and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) urged Mulvaney to withdraw the "ill-thought out proposal" to remove the World Trade Center Health Program from the NIOSH.

King said he would take the issue directly to the Oval Office if necessary.