Ground Zero health activist eyes Congress bid

After years of being on the political sidelines, a leading 9/11 health care advocate said he was inspired by the midterm elections, and is considering a run for elected office.

John Feal, whose Feal Good Foundation has lobbied lawmakers for years on behalf of 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, says he’d like to sit on the other side of the desk as a member of Congress.

Feal, 53, a Suffolk county activist, made the reveal Wednesday during a trip to Capitol Hill, where he was drumming up support for a bill to increase health care funding for 9/11 first responders.

“I think this election cycle has motivated a lot of people, including myself, who have been thinking about running for a long time,” said Feal (inset). Among those encouraging Feal to run, he said, is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the elected leaders Feal saw while making the rounds.

Gillibrand was moved to tears when the 17 first responders who accompanied Feal shared their plight. “You’re all heroes,” Gillibrand said, choking up. “I’m sorry you have to keep coming back here again and again and again . ... You are the best of America.”

The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund is set to expire in 2020, but money could run out before then, even as cancer diagnoses rise among those who responded first to the tragedy.

“There’s so much clarity about what’s at stake,” Gillibrand said, “and how much suffering that all of you have already gone through, and that this needs to be made permanent for all our first responders and all our community workers whenever they’re diagnosed in the future.”