The American Capitol building was seen on December 2, 2024 in Washington, DC
Samuel Corum / Getty Images North America
hide
tilting legend
Samuel Corum / Getty Images North America
The best Democrat of the Chamber’s supervisory committee requests responses from the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lunick, why the dismissed employees of his department were denied health coverage that they had already paid.
“I urge you to take immediate measures to remedy financial and physical injuries to employees who have illegally canceled their health coverage,” said representative Stephen Lynch de Massachusetts, a member of the Committee classification, in a letter to Lutnick. “I also ask for information on how you make sure that such abuse of employees no longer occurs.”
The letter, sent to Lunick on Wednesday, follows NPR reports That the employees of the trade department who were dismissed, reinstated by the court order and licensees had again cut their health coverage prematurely. They were not assured – despite the fact that they had paid their health care premiums thanks to deductions from payroll checks, and despite the federal government policy to provide 31 days of free health care coverage after the termination of an employee.
“Failure to comply with the trade to comply with its health care obligations towards their employees raises concerns as to other forms of compensation due, such as the payment of the leaves won and hours of credit, are refused,” wrote Lynch.
Commerce secretary Howard Lunick pronounces remarks at the American Capitol on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images North America
hide
tilting legend
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images North America
Drawn, briefly reintegrated and shot again
The people concerned were all considered Probatory employeesGenerally more recent hires, although many have years of experience in their fields. The Commerce Department dismissed nearly 800 of them at the end of February and early March As part of the efforts of the Trump administration To quickly reduce the federal workforce. At the time, some employees were informed that their health services ended after a period of grace of 31 days.
But the States continued on their sudden endings and in mid-March, A federal judge from Maryland concluded that their layoffs were probably illegal And ordered them reinstatement. The Commerce Department brought them back and put them on administrative leave paid. Some have been provided by their supervisors that their advantages would be restored. Others have received new insurance cards by mail.
Then a few weeks later, A court of appeal canceled the order of the lower court. The next day, on April 10, the Commerce Department informed the employees that they were again dismissed, retroactive on their original dismissal dates.
She underwent hip surgery, believing that she was insured
Ya’el Seid-Green was among the hundreds taken in this chaos. She had worked as an entrepreneur for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Commerce Department for four years before becoming a federal employee in 2023.
She has undergone arthroscopic hip surgery planned for a long time scheduled for April 9. She planned to reject him with the upheaval at work and the confusion to find out if her health insurance had been restored.
A logo of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seen at the aircraft operations center in Lakeland, Florida, on May 6, 2025. The Trump administration dismissed around 600 NOAA employees in its purge of probationary workers earlier this year.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images
hide
tilting legend
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images
“People received different answers from different people, different answers from the same people,” Seid-Green told NPR.
The day before her operation, she received an email by a supervisor who said that the government “had encountered certain problems” but actively worked on the restoration of its health coverage. This gave him confidence that surgery would be covered, especially since she had paid her bonus.
So she arrived the next morning for her operation. She received an estimate of costs, paid him $ 150 in co-payment and had the procedure. The next day, during a follow -up visit, she learned that the Commerce Department drew it again.
A full week after that, on April 17, she and others from the NOAA received a note of human resources informing them that their health care coverage had ended on April 8, the date of initial insurance which had been given to them before their reinstatement.
Without insurance, Seid-Green now owes about $ 15,000 for surgery. This week, she said, she received calls from her surgery center and her physiotherapist exhortant to install payment plans.
More than a month ago, she submitted documents to register for the version of the Federal Government of Cobra, paying the total cost of its health coverage, but has not yet been confirmed that it has been registered.
“I keep telling them that it will be covered,” she wrote at NPR this week, adding an emoji crossed the fingers.
A Democrat requires answers
Democratic representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts speaks during an audience in the office of Rayburn House Office in Capitol Hill on April 12, 2018. Lynch was exploited by the representative Gerry Connolly to serve as the first acting democrat of the chamber’s supervisory committee after Connolly set out in late April, a few weeks before his death.
SOMODEVILLA CHIP / GETTY Images / Getty Images North America
hide
tilting legend
SOMODEVILLA CHIP / GETTY Images / Getty Images North America
Now Lynch asked Lunick to explain why the Commerce Department did not honor its commitment to continue the health coverage of employees for a period of 31 days after their dismissal, which questions the ministry’s decision to base insurance coverage for the initial dates of employees after the Court of Appeal authorized the layoffs to go ahead. The cases contesting the layoffs continue to make their way to the courts.
Lynch also asks why the Commerce Department has not reimbursed the health insurance premiums that dismissed employees have continued to pay. Half a dozen former trading employees of the NOAA and the Chips for America program told NPR that even their final wage of the pay period ending on April 19 show a deduction for their health care premiums.
In the brief e-mail of April 10 informing the employees that they were dismissed a second time retroactive on their initial dismissal dates, the trade service said they would not be required to return the salary they had received during their administrative leave. Now, some of them wonder if the government considers it more than sufficient to cover the health care bonuses they had paid for, for coverage that has not been provided.
In her letter, Lynch asked Libnick to reimburse all the employees dismissed from paid health care premiums when they were not covered. He also demanded that employees be reimbursed for medical invoices that their insurance would have covered during this period.
Lynch asked that Lutnick provides the surveillance committee for the chamber of responses and a follow -up report before June 18.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to the request for NPR comments on the letter from Lynch and did not respond to several requests for previous comments on the dismissal of health insurance for licensed employees.