Editor’s note: This is the final of a two-part series on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Respirator Approval Program. This installment explores how policymakers, manufacturers and advocates are responding to funding challenges and why cutting the program could have long-term costs. Part one, which published in the Sept. 26 edition, examined reliance of Missouri workers and industries on the program to guard against unsafe or counterfeit respirators. The fight in Washington over a little-known program could shape the health and livelihoods of Missouri’s one million workers who depend on certified respirators. While the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Respirator Approval Program (RAP) quietly ensures that protective masks meet rigorous standards, its survival now hinges on whether lawmakers see it as a budget line or a lifeline. “This is a small program with an outsized impact,” said International Safety Equipment Association …