NC Rep. Ross asks RFK Jr. to reverse federal cuts that halted Poe Hall investigation
Last month, NC State University officials announced that the federal health investigation into Poe Hall had been closed due to cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration.
Now, the congresswoman who represents Raleigh and much of Wake County in Washington is asking that those cuts be reversed.
Democratic Rep. Deborah Ross sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging him to “reconsider” the decision to terminate hundreds of workers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH.
“I am deeply concerned that this reduction in force (RIF) will undermine workplace safety for my constituents in North Carolina and across the country,” Ross wrote in her letter to Kennedy, which her office provided to The News & Observer.
DHHS has undergone massive cuts since President Donald Trump took office in January, with NIOSH alone losing 850 of its roughly 1,000 employees last month, The Associated Press reported. The agency has been further hollowed out in the weeks since those initial terminations, with nearly all of NIOSH’s remaining staff now laid off, CBS News reported.
The workforce cuts resulted in ongoing health evaluations at Poe Hall and across the state coming to a halt, which Ross called “extremely alarming.”
Health hazard evaluations, which are offered at no cost to employers, are meant to determine whether workers are exposed to hazardous materials and whether these exposures are responsible for health risks, illness or injury, or harmful conditions.
NIOSH and NC State reached a “mutual agreement” last February to open the federal evaluation at Poe Hall. The campus building, which previously hosted the College of Education and psychology department, has been closed for 18 months after university officials shuttered it, citing preliminary test results that showed the presence of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, on various surfaces throughout the building.
PCBs are toxic, man-made chemicals that were banned from being produced in the United States in 1979. They are considered to be “probable human carcinogens,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They also are known to have a myriad of other negative health effects.
NIOSH’s evaluation of Poe Hall, if it had gone forward, may have provided clarity as to whether exposure to toxic chemicals in the building was responsible for employees’ illness, such as cancer. The investigation also would have ensured those who worked and learned in Poe Hall “understood the potential health effects associated with exposure and could obtain the resources necessary to treat potential diseases,” Ross wrote.
The cuts to NIOSH “will have profound negative impacts and (are) already leaving thousands of individuals affected by the Poe Hall contamination with no answers and nowhere to turn,” Ross wrote.
Elsewhere in Wake County, the NIOSH cuts also mean that a county government building in Zebulon will not receive independent tests for mold, formaldehyde and radon from the federal government.
A state Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson previously told The N&O that North Carolina and other states “depend on the expertise at NIOSH for workplace cancer concerns because the funding and expertise to support this work is with the federal government.”
Noting that “NIOSH has long helped ensure that workers have a safe and healthy environment in which to perform their duties,” Ross also warned of the impacts that the agency’s cuts will have far beyond Wake County. On Sunday, more than 100 current and former NIOSH employees warned, in a letter to Congress, that “without us, more workers will suffer preventable deaths, illnesses, and injuries,” per NBC News.
“Your reduction in force at this essential agency has put the health and safety of my constituents and workers nationwide at risk,” Ross concluded. “Again, I strongly urge you to reconsider your drastic cuts to this agency, and to prioritize safer workplaces, healthier workers, and a better future for North Carolinians and all Americans.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM with the headline "NC Rep. Ross asks RFK Jr. to reverse federal cuts that halted Poe Hall investigation."
