I’M SORRY, VICS, NOT YET
Bean-counting Ky. Sen. Paul rebuffs Gilly bid to fast-track Sept. 11 bill
Sen. Rand Paul is balking at the $10 billion price tag for the 9/ 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
The Kentucky Republican derailed a request on Wednesday by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to fast-track the bill that would permanently fund compensation for sick and dying 9/11 responders and victims because the cost was too high.
“We’re adding debt at about a trillion dollars a year,” Paul said in stopping the request.
“Any new spending we are approaching, any new program that’s going to have the longevity of 70, 80 years should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable,” he said. “We need to at very least to have this debate.”
The $10.2 billion measure passed the House last week by an overwhelming margin of 402 to 12. It did not have any provisions to offset the cost — a fact some lawmakers there noted, although it was not reason enough for them to oppose the bill.
Gillibrand’s request would have sent the bill directly to the president, ending nearly 18 years of uncertainty for people who rushed to the devastation of Ground Zero or lived and worked among the dust and smoke. “I am deeply disappointed,” said Gillibrand, pointing to the vote in the House and the 74 senators who back the bill.
“Enough of the political games,” she said. “Our 9/11 first responders and the entire nation are watching to see if this body actually cares. Do we care about the men and women who answered the call of duty when our country was attacked?”
Paul’s objection is unlikely to kill the bill. Numerous responders and advocates who have been pushing for the legislation told the Daily News that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — the senior senator from Kentucky — is solidly behind the bill.
“It’s my understanding that Sen. McConnell and his staff are working hard to get the Housepassed bill onto the floor as quickly as he can,” said Ben Chevat, who runs the group Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act.
The measure was originally named for Zadroga after the NYPD detective died in 2006 from the dust and toxins that destroyed his lungs. The names of late Firefighter Ray Pfeifer and late NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez have also been added to the bill. Both were advocates before they died of 9/11-linked cancer, and Alvarez galvanized momentum behind the new bill when
he testified in June about the illness that left him visibly ravaged and exhausted. The responders gave McConnell Alvarez’s badge.
McConnell had not been an avid supporter before, but after responders presented him with their tragic gift, as Alvarez lay dying, he got behind the bill.
Another last-minute opponent of the legislation, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), did not join Paul in blocking it Wednesday, but word leaking out that he had reservations infuriated responders.
John Feal, head of the Feal Good Foundation 9/11 advocacy group, hammered Lee on Facebook on Wednesday morning. Responders had met with Lee’s staff, and emerged from the meeting telling The News that Lee’s top counsel, Phil Alito, promised that Lee would not stand in the way. Feal trained his fire on the Kentuckian Wednesday.
“Rand Paul is as unpatriotic as Mike Lee. More importantly Sen. Paul is a doctor who took an oath just as he did as a senator,” Feal said. “And he failed miserably at both.”
Lee’s office said he was concerned about fraud and abuse in the Justice Department-run fund and wanted to cap the bill’s 10-year cost estimate of $10.2 billion, plus $10 billion to last until 2092.
However, the Congressional Budget Office said in its estimate that figure could be low by as much as $4 billion, not counting new illnesses that are likely to emerge. It could mean people like Alvarez have to trek back to Capitol Hill in seven or eight years — a nonstarter for responders.
“We had a cap in 2010 and these guys had to walk the halls to fix it, we had a cap in 2015 and these guys had to walk the halls to fix it, and now Sen. Lee wants to cap it again? So that they have to come back a third time? That is wrong,” said Chevat.
One responder who met Lee this month to get a “Freedom Award” from a conservative group in Utah was willing to grant him a little leeway. Tommy Asher — one of the rescuers featured in a film about the last two survivors of the twin towers’ collapse — told The News that Lee pledged “1,000%” support for responders.
He said Lee’s office told him Wednesday the senator still supports the bill, although he has not signed on as a sponsor. He was merely taking more time to be sure there was not “corruption” related to the measure.
“All I know is I’m OK with anybody’s support. If he decides that he’s looking into it a little deeper, that’s his prerogative,” Asher said.
But he still expects a “Yes” vote, and soon.
“If he says ‘Nay,’ that’s on his conscience, not mine. He’s promised me that we have his full backing,” Asher said.
Other responders ripped Paul on social media, noting he is an annual tweeter on the anniversary of Sept. 11.
“.@RandPaul 9/11 first responders and survivors will remember that you were the Senator to object to a vote ...,” tweeted retired Firefighter Rob Serra, who was a rookie on 9/11. “Your words are meaningless Doc as any delay will only lead to more deaths caused by 9/11 illness.
Serra included Paul’s most recent yearly homage to responders.
“Our nation suffered a tremendous loss on #September11th 2001. #NeverForget the families and loved ones lost or the soldiers that lost their lives defending our country after,” Paul tweeted in 2018.
McConnell has already put the 9/11 bill on the Senate’s calendar, and with nearly three-quarters of the Senate already backing the measure, it seemed likely to pass, but it will take a little longer.
The compensation fund is running out of money well before its current expiration date of 2020. The fund master has cut compensation payments. Hundreds of slashed awards have already gone out to widows and ailing survivors.