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A 9/11 responder with life-threatening pancreatic cancer was told this week that he couldn’t start chemotherapy. Two others with new cancer diagnoses were also denied treatment, according to Dr. David Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department and director of its World Trade Center Health Program.

“We postponed chemotherapy for a firefighter this week, hoping this could be fixed,” Prezant said “He’s too young for Medicare, and this delay may cost him his life.”

All three patients were part of the federally funded World Trade Center Health Program — a system created to care for those who risked their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. But the program has come to a standstill, Prezant said.

“We have been directed not to process any new certifications,” an internal email that was shared with ABC News said.

To receive care through the program, a responder or survivor must first enroll and then have their illness formally certified by the federal program as being related to 9/11 exposure.

Certification is a separate and critical step. Clinics must submit medical evidence, such as biopsy results or lung scans — and only after the program approves it can treatment move forward or compensation claims be filed.

Without someone in place to authorize these certifications, patients with newly diagnosed conditions are stuck waiting.

Prezant said the secure federal website used to track approvals had removed the certification tab entirely.

In addition to its freeze on certifying illnesses, the program can no longer enroll new members or approve life-saving treatments like chemotherapy, lung transplants or stem cell therapy.

The crisis, Prezant said, is the result of a breakdown on multiple fronts: severe staffing cuts, and budget shortfalls worsened by inflation.

Sixteen of the program’s doctors, nurses and support staff were laid off in early April — depleting the program by approximately 20%.

This month’s layoffs followed a previous round of cuts in February — but those were reversed after bipartisan backlash. It hasn’t yet been established if any of the newly terminated employees were part of the original group.

Either way, the decision once again left the program critically understaffed, according to clinic leaders and advocacy groups.

To make matters worse, the World Trade Center Health Program’s longtime leader, Dr. John Howard, was also removed in February — and then rehired after bipartisan backlash. But according to Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, an advocacy group, it’s still unclear whether he was actually reinstated to his legal role as administrator.

“It appears that Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was not properly reinstated as Administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, as the Health and Human Services Department told the NY Republican Members of Congress which they announced on April 5,” the group said in a statement on its website.

Howard’s unresolved status is preventing the program from functioning, the statement added.

Clinics were allowed to begin treating patients under “initial approvals,” Prezant said, while waiting for formal certification from the federal program. But that emergency workaround was shut down this week, Prezant explained.

The process of certification requires submitting medical evidence — like biopsy results or lung scans — and a signature from the program’s administrator, which has not been possible, “a clear sign that Dr. Howard hasn’t been fully reinstated,” according to Prezant.

Without formal certification, treatment for new conditions cannot proceed, Prezant emphasized.

Funding problems are also interrupting the program’s ability to function.

The program now serves more than 150,000 people nationwide, up from about 76,000 in 2015, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A bipartisan bill, HR 1410, was introduced in February to close the funding gap as enrollment surged, but it remains stalled in Congress.

“We don’t decide who qualifies,” said Prezant, noting that eligibility rules and certification decisions are set by the federal program under the Zadroga Act. “That protects the system from fraud — and it works.”

He pointed to FDNY data showing that five years after a cancer diagnosis, 86% of program patients are still alive — compared to just 66% among those diagnosed in New York State who are not enrolled in the program.

Now, according to Prezant and others, patients in all 50 states who rely on care from the program are being turned away without clear answers about when, or if, the system will be restored.

“No one is asking for anything more than what was promised under the law,” Prezant said, referring to the Zagroda Act’s commitment to provide lifelong medical care and monitoring for 9/11 responders and survivors whose illnesses are linked to their exposure. “We just want the federal government to honor that promise before more lives are lost.”

ABC reached out to HHS for a response but did not hear back. In a statement sent earlier this week, an agency spokesperson said, “The Program continues to accept and review new enrollment applications and certification requests.”

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Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has stayed largely out of the political limelight since leaving office, sharply criticized President Donald Trump – her opponent in the 2024 presidential election – over tariffs, government cuts, and the direction his administration is taking the country, during remarks on Wednesday in San Francisco.

Her remarks, delivered at the 20th anniversary celebration for Emerge, an organization that supports Democratic women running for office, came as the Trump administration celebrates its accomplishments in its first 100 days – a date Harris acknowledged.

“Now I know tonight’s event happens to coincide with 100 days after the inauguration, and I’ll leave it to others to give a full accounting of what’s happened so far,” Harris told the audience.

“But I will say this, instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals,” she said.

Harris has had few public appearances since departing the White House and has limited her political activity, but on Wednesday night, she called out Trump by name.

“We all know President Trump, his administration and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious. They are counting on the notion that, if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others,” Harris said.

“But what they’re overlooking, what they’ve overlooked, is that fear isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. Courage is contagious,” Harris said to raucous cheers.

Harris had brought up similar themes – including the “courage is contagious” line – during remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April.

That courage, Harris added on Wednesday, extends to Americans protesting against what she called “the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history.”

“Americans across the political spectrum who are declaring that the president’s reckless tariffs hurt workers and families by raising the cost of everyday essentials; devastate the retirement accounts that people spent a lifetime paying into; and paralyze American businesses, large and small forcing them to lay off people, stop hiring, or pause investment decisions,” she said.

Trump and the White House have argued that tariffs will help Americans be better off economically in the long run and will level the playing field between the U.S. and its trading partners.

Later in her remarks, speaking more broadly about the White House’s actions, Harris said she would describe the current moment in America as a “high-velocity event” to implement an agenda she claimed was “decades in the making” to shrink and privatize government while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

“It’s an agenda, a narrow self-serving vision of America, where they punish truth tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power and leave everyone to fend for themselves, all while abandoning allies and retreating from the world,” Harris said. “And folks, what we are experiencing right now is exactly what they envision for America.”

Americans should be ready, if the “checks and balances” such as Congress “ultimately collapse,” Harris said, to work together and raise their voices.

“I am not here tonight to offer all the answers, but I am here to say this, you are not alone, and we are all in this together — and straight talk, things are probably going to get worse before they get better, but we are ready for it. We are not going to scatter. We are going to stand together, everyone a leader,” Harris said.

At the end of her remarks, Harris struck a populist note: “Always remember this country is ours. It doesn’t belong to whoever is in the White House. It belongs to you. It belongs to us. It belongs to We The People.”

The former Democratic nominee for president has had few public appearances since departing the White House, and has limited her political activity.

Harris’ speech came as she is set to possibly re-enter politics in the coming months. Harris has been mulling a run in California’s gubernatorial race and will make a decision by the end of summer, two sources familiar with her plans told ABC News in March.

Some Democrats have also floated her as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, although some of her longtime supporters have told ABC News they are torn over that prospect.

Whether she runs for either office or not, Harris’ public remarks thus far have sometimes included veiled and explicit swipes at the Trump administration and the president himself.

In remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April, she weighed in on the second Trump administration, saying “there is a sense of fear that has been taking hold in our country” but that “courage is also contagious.”

And in remarks at the NAACP Image Awards in February, Harris framed the “chapter” America is in as one that “will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”

Harris and her spouse, Doug Emhoff, have been the target of recent actions by Trump.

Trump issued a memo in March that revoked the security clearances and access to classified information of his previous presidential opponents — Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris — as well as more than a dozen former administration officials. On Tuesday, Emhoff said he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as the White House confirmed it had removed board members.

-ABC News’ Averi Harper, Zohreen Shah, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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LONDON — The U.S. and Ukrainian governments touted the signing of a controversial minerals sharing deal as a launchpad for expansive bilateral economic cooperation — and as a signal of America’s long-term investment in a free Ukraine.

American and Ukrainian representatives signed the accord in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday after months of tense negotiations, President Donald Trump long having framed the proposal as means to recoup more than $100 billion worth of aid given to Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion three years ago.

“This partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine’s growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital and governance standards that will improve Ukraine’s investment climate and accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a video announcing the deal.

The full details of the agreement are yet to be released, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expected to present the deal to the Ukrainian parliament — the Rada — on Thursday. Shmyhal this week previewed some parts of the agreement, saying it would not undermine Ukraine’s potential for accession to the European Union.

The deal will also need to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, members of which suggested on Thursday it was too early to fully evaluate the agreement.

“I don’t know what we have signed,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker representing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party and the chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News.

“Judging by the statement of the prime minister, it is better than the initial version,” he added. “It seems like we have managed to dodge Trump’s idea to turn the previously-provided U.S. military and material aid into Ukrainian debts.”

The lawmaker suggested it was too early to say whether the deal represented a win for both Kyiv and Washington.

“It seems like Trump put pressure on us in an attempt to get a victory in his first 100 days in office,” Merezhko said. “The devil is in the details. But politically there are upsides. First, we have improved relations with Trump for whom it’s a win.”

Other members of parliament suggested that ratification would not be immediate. “I would really like to see the final document of the agreement,” lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Telegram.

Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, meanwhile, suggested it may take until mid-May for the parliament to vote on the minerals agreement — “and that’s only if everything is submitted to the Rada on time,” he wrote on Telegram.

In Russia, Dmitry Medvedev — the former president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council — framed the deal as a defeat for Kyiv.

“Trump has broken the Kyiv regime into paying for American aid with minerals,” Medvedev — who through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has become known for his hawkish statements — wrote on Telegram. “Now they will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country,” he wrote.

Nonetheless, Bessent said the agreement “clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term, it’s time for this cruel and senseless war to end the killing must stop.”

Bessent also said this deal was because of “President Trump’s tireless efforts to secure a lasting peace.”

ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has stayed largely out of the political limelight since leaving office, is set to deliver remarks on Wednesday in San Francisco as the Trump administration celebrates its accomplishments of its first 100 days.

Harris will be speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration for Emerge, an organization that supports Democratic women running for office.

The former Democratic nominee for president has had few public appearances since departing the White House, and has limited her political activity.

But her remarks come as she is set to possibly re-enter politics in the coming months. Harris has been mulling a run in California’s gubernatorial race and will make a decision by the end of summer, two sources familiar with her plans told ABC News in March.

Some Democrats have also floated her as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, although some of her longtime supporters have told ABC News they are torn over that prospect.

Whether she runs for either office or not, Harris’ public remarks thus far have sometimes included veiled and explicit swipes at the Trump administration and the president himself.

In remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April, she weighed in on the second Trump administration, saying “there is a sense of fear that has been taking hold in our country” but that “courage is also contagious.”

And in remarks at the NAACP Image Awards in February, Harris framed the “chapter” America is in as one that “will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”

Harris and her spouse Doug Emhoff have been the target of recent actions by President Donald Trump.

Trump issued a memo in March that revoked the security clearances and access to classified information of his previous presidential opponents — Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris — as well as more than a dozen former administration officials. On Tuesday, Emhoff said he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as the White House confirmed it had removed board members.

-ABC News’ Averi Harper, Zohreen Shah, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday appeared ready to clear the way for creation of the nation’s first religious charter school funded directly with taxpayer dollars.

The justices heard arguments in a landmark dispute from Oklahoma, where the state Supreme Court last year blocked the Catholic Church from receiving a charter school contract on grounds that it violated state and federal constitutional bans on government-sponsored sectarian education.

A decision overruling the state high court would have ripple effects nationwide, especially in the 45 states that are home to 8,000 charter schools serving more than 3.8 million kids.

The state’s Republican attorney general argues that charter schools are public schools – open to all and subject to close supervision – and, as such, operate as extensions of state government subject to principles of separation of church and state.

Lawyers for the prospective school — St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School — insist that it is privately created and controlled and that excluding it from generally available charter school funding is religious discrimination.

For more than two hours, the justices debated application of the First Amendment’s competing religion clauses to the case, weighing both its prohibition of state establishment of religion and its protection of free exercise of religious faith.

The court’s three liberal members were united in the view that charter schools are quintessentially public institutions that cannot advance a specific ideology using taxpayer funds.

“The essence of the Establishment Clause was, we’re not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Elena Kagan noted that the Oklahoma law creating a charter school program explicitly says they must be nonreligious.

“These are state-run institutions,” Kagan said. “With respect to a whole variety of things, the state is running these schools and insisting upon certain requirements.”

Conservatives suggested they had a fundamentally different view of charter schools — as contractors for a public service rather than an arm of the government.

“The argument that St. Isidore and the board has made is that it’s a private entity that is participating in a state program,” noted Justice Clarence Thomas. “It was not created by the state program.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed concern that a ruling against St. Isidore on First Amendment grounds could call into question other government contracts with religiously affiliated organizations.

“I think a concern here is that religiously operated senior homes or food banks or foster care agencies or adoption agencies or homeless shelters, many of which get substantial funding from the government, would potentially … become state actors and, thus, not be able to exercise their religion,” Kavanaugh said.

A series of recent Supreme Court decisions has endorsed the idea that taxpayer-funded public benefit programs, from school vouchers to state-run scholarships, must be equally available, even if a person or organization has a religious affiliation.

Many of the justices said those precedents apply to the Oklahoma case.

Kavanaugh emphasized that religious charter schools would provide families with “options” but not confine students to a religious education.

“A student in Oklahoma is free to choose a public school, correct? No student is required to attend a charter school, correct?” he said.

“That’s right,” replied Gregory Garre, the attorney representing the state.

Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested that individual states opposed to religiously affiliated charter schools could tailor their laws to prevent that — and potentially curtail a charter’s independence.

“I can imagine some states might respond to a decision in your favor by imposing more requirements on charter schools,” Gorsuch said to attorney James Campbell representing the plaintiffs.

Chief Justice John Roberts posed critical questions of both sides. At one point, Roberts opined that a St. Isidore charter school would pose a striking “comprehensive involvement” between church and state. Later, he likened the relationship to Catholic Charities’ contract with the City of Philadelphia to provide adoption services; a 2021 high court decision said the city could not exclude the religious agency from the foster care program.

“How is that different from what we have here?” Roberts asked Oklahoma attorney Gregory Garre. “You have an education program, and you want to not allow them to participate with a religious entity.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from the case last year but did not explain her decision. Veteran court watchers have noted her close ties to the University of Notre Dame and personal relationships with law professors there who are involved in the case.

Her absence creates the possibility of a gridlocked 4-4 court, in which case the Oklahoma state Supreme Court ruling would stand. Roberts is widely seen as being the decisive vote.

“Today’s oral arguments made clear that states must not treat religious individuals and institutions as second-class citizens,” said Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and president of JCN, a conservative legal advocacy group. “I expect the court will follow precedent and allow St. Isidore to offer educational choice for Oklahoma’s students.”

Opponents of religious charter schools said they feared a major ruling is on the horizon and could be transformative.

“If today’s arguments are any indication, the Supreme Court may be on the verge of abandoning one of the bedrock principles of our democracy,” said Rev. Dr. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, a left-leaning Christian advocacy group. “Let’s be clear, this was always a test case, and today, the constitutional protections that have guarded true religious freedom for generations are at risk.”

 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump reflected on the dramatic meeting he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inside St. Peter’s Basilica just before the pope’s funeral on Saturday, when asked by ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran in an exclusive interview Tuesday in the Oval Office.

Noting the striking photograph of the two men “talking peace” that “went around the world,” Moran asked Trump, “Take us into that moment.”

“The moment was a moment of solace in a sense, because — tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying,” Trump answered. “They’re being killed, and I feel very badly about it,” he said.

It was the first time Trump and Zelenskyy had met face-to-face since their heated argument in the Oval Office in February.

At the time, Zelenskyy contended the Russian president needed stronger pushback from Ukraine’s allies.

“I really count on your strong position to stop Putin,” Zelenskyy said to Trump at the February meeting.

Moran noted that Trump has since appeared to have changed his thinking about Putin’s intentions, bringing up what Trump said in a social media post after his conversation with Zelenskyy in St. Peter’s.

“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, in cities and towns, over the last few days,” he said in the post. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war. He’s just tapping me along.”

Trump repeated those comments in the interview.

“It’s possible. Yeah, that’s possible. Sure,” he said. “He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war.”

When Moran asked if Trump truly believed Putin wanted to end the war even with the continued attacks, Trump claimed that negotiations would have been much worse under a different president.

“You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?” Moran asked.

“I think he does, yes. I think he does,” he answered.

“Still?” Moran said.

“I think because of me … ” Trump continued.

“Even with the raining missiles on …?” Moran asked.

“I think he really– his– his– his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he’s not gonna do that,” Trump answered.

Asked if he trusts Putin, Trump said, “I don’t trust a lot of people. But I do think this. I think that he … let’s say he respects me,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — In his interview with ABC News on his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump was asked about one of his biggest supporters sounding the alarm about his aggressive migrant deportation plan.

Joe Rogan told his audience of millions on his April 17 episode that “rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process” was “dangerous.”

“We gotta be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters,” Rogan said.

Responding to that quote in an interview with ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran on Tuesday — who asked whether Rogan was right — Trump said he was.

“Oh, I agree with that a hundred percent, yeah,” the president said. “We want to be careful. We are careful.”

When asked about the various court challenges to the deportations and court orders admonishing his administration for not following the law, Trump pushed back, calling those being deported “criminals.” He claimed Venezuelan “criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we’re getting ’em out.”

“And I was elected to get ’em out, and we’re getting them out, getting them out fast, and we’re getting them out legally,” he said.

Moran stressed that “in our country even bad guys get due process,” but Trump contended the situation is different for migrants in the country illegally.

“If people come into our country illegally there’s a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally,” the president said.

“But they get due process,” Moran said.

“Well, they get a process where we have to get ’em out, yeah,” Trump said.

The president was asked about the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered the administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant from El Salvador who was deported from Maryland to a notorious prison there because of an “administrative error,” according to the Justice Department.

Trump alleged that Abrego Garcia was a violent gang member, even though judges have said such claims have not been proven in court by prosecutors in the weeks since he was arrested.

“You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran said.

“I could,” Trump said.

“You could pick it up, and with all … ” Moran continued.

“I could,” Trump said again, interrupting Moran.

“… the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back,’ right now,” Moran said.

“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump said. “But he’s not.”

When Moran said “the buck stops in this office,” Trump responded, “I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is.”

When questioned again about the Supreme Court ruling, Moran saying, “the Supreme Court says what the law is,” Trump said he was elected in November to crack down on illegal immigration.

“Listen. I was elected to take care of a problem that was — it was — a, a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man,” Trump said, referring to former President Joe Biden.

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