EXCLUSIVE: White House rejects Politico story based on leaked document: “there are no cuts to the critical services of NIOSH”

A White House official told the Washington Reporter that the Trump administration will not be making cuts to crucial services to firefighters, despite a Politico story claiming that the administration could “wipe out firefighter health and safety programs.”

The Politico piece appears based on a leaked and unfinished memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Kush Desai, a White House deputy Press Secretary, told the Reporter that “there are no cuts to the critical services of [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health].”

“Career bureaucrats continue to try to undermine this administration and the directives of the agencies,” Desai added.

While there were reductions in force (RIFs) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the White House and HHS are not letting cuts to actual services for firefighters happen, a source told the Reporter.

The Reporter has previously fact-checked stories based on leaked and incomplete memos throughout the administration.

One centered around the State Department’s elimination of the censorship-prone Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R-FIMI).