The Trump administration has reversed itself on making funding and staff cuts to a federal health program for survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, after bipartisan criticism of the moves.

In a statement Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the World Trade Center Health Program, said it had reinstated two research grants that had been cut and that employees who had been fired several days ago would return to their jobs.

John Feal, a retired construction worker from Long Island, New York, who began advocating for the program’s creation years after he was injured helping with cleanup and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center, praised the reversal.

“The White House underestimated us,” he said.

He and other advocates began mobilizing opposition to the cuts last week as soon as the Trump administration fired 16 health program employees who helped administer medical treatment for those suffering from attack-related toxins.

The program’s 90-member staff was reduced about 20% overall. Advocates, members of Congress and workers who had been let go said that in addition to the 16 workers who were fired, others had taken buyouts and left.

The firings immediately touched off an outcry among Democratic lawmakers, who said the cuts would delay enrollment for new patients and make fewer workers available to patients and help with diagnoses and treatment.

One of those Democrats, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said Friday that the program “should have never been on the chopping block in the first place.”

He added: “It makes sense that the Trump administration has done a complete about-face.”

Once announced, the cuts quickly proved to be a political third rail, and Democrats were soon joined in opposing them by Republican members of Congress in districts in and around New York City, where the memory of 9/11 continues to resonate.

On Wednesday, in a striking challenge to President Donald Trump, eight congressional Republicans appealed to him in a letter “as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks” to reverse the cuts.

The letter appeared to have a speedy effect. Word spread Thursday that the administration had restored research grants that had been terminated. One, for $257,000, is for research by the New York City Fire Department comparing incidence rates for cancer in their ranks with those in other urban departments. The grant was cut last week as “nonessential,” which Fire Department officials disputed.

The city’s fire commissioner, Robert Tucker, said Friday that the restoration of the grant money would “provide treatment coverage to those who need it most, and make good on our promise to never forget.”

Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Long Island Republican, hailed the reversal in a social media post Friday and welcomed what he called “President Trump’s commitment to making sure these heroes continue to receive the health care they need.”