Help for the heroes
Support is building in Congress to reauthorize federal funding for the 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who have been sickened because of their service after the terror attack. Crucially, Republicans are getting on board. Breathing the toxic air over Ground Zero produced harms that range from digestive tract disorders to lung damage to fatal cancers. Many of the afflicted came from across the country, including Pennsylvania.
Two of that state’s GOP representatives, Michael Kelly and Charles Dent, met with constituents who paid with their health after joining the post-9/11 comeback fight. Kelly and Dent then signed on to co-sponsor a bill to extend the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.
Kelly, Dent and Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle joined in supporting the measure with fellow Pennsylvanians Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican, and Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat. Still to come are House members of both parties and GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. Altogether, they represent 1,044 Pennsylvanians who were hurt by working at the WTC and receive Zadroga law aid.
Also joining the roster of co-sponsors are Republican Reps. David Jolly of Florida and Mike Bost of Illinois. Good for them.
With both houses of Congress in GOP control, Republican support for extending the Zadroga law will be crucial.
The bill passed in 2010 in the waning moments of Democratic domination. Democrats called for a 10-year, $7.4 billion program to provide health care and compensation to the injured. Republicans, who had long blocked funding, allowed a five-year program costing $4.2 billion. The money stops at the end of 2016.
The term limit was unfair when compared with other federal health programs.
Enacted in 1969, the Black Lung Benefits Act covers sick coal miners from places like Kentucky. (Hello, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.) It never expires.
The 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expires in 2022 — after 32 years. It covers people sickened by exposure to aboveground nuke tests, which ended in 1962, or people who worked as uranium miners before 1972.
Begun in 2000 for atomic weapons plant workers, benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program never expire.
Why should federal aid for Ground Zero workers have a statute of limitation and a cap? It shouldn’t. Renew the Zadroga Act for good.