Public Employee Press

2009 Political Action
9/11 health care bill advances in Congress

As Sept. 11 arrives, the debate over federal funding for the victims of the 9/11 disaster continues into its ninth year.

The bill to provide health care, monitoring and compensation for workers and residents exposed to the deadly dust of the World Trade Center site was reintroduced in the House of Representatives in February by U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King and Michael McMahon.

Important progress came in June, when it was introduced in the Senate for the first time by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with cosponsors Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is named for a detective who died after working near Ground Zero. The bill would reopen the Victims Compensation Fund until Dec. 22, 2031, for those who could not file claims because they did not become sick until after the original 2003 deadline.

The proposal would establish the World Trade Center Health Program to provide permanent medical monitoring and treatment for WTC responders and community members with 9/11-related conditions.

The plan would fund the WTC Environmental Health Center of the city Health and Hospitals Corp., which provides services at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and Bellevue and Gouverneur hospitals in Manhattan, as well as expand support for the city Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide for related mental health needs.

“The heroes and heroines of 9/11 deserve the help of this grateful nation,” said Maloney, a prime sponsor of the bill and a longtime advocate for comprehensive 9/11 health care legislation, “and I’m very pleased that my colleagues in the Senate are now sponsoring this vital relief effort.”

The budget President Barack Obama signed earlier this year included $70 million to fund the program for fiscal year 2010.