9/11 first responders bill now on its way to Trump
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to add billions of dollars to a fastdwindling compensation fund for 9/11 workers who now are sick or dying.
The decision capped an emotional political debate over ongoing deaths linked to the 2001 terror attacks.
The legislation, which was championed by gravely ill first responders and former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, will extend the compensation program for decades, at an estimated cost of $10.2 billion for the first 10 years.
It passed 97 to 2, drawing cheers and applause from first responders and their families in the Senate gallery.
Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, voted against the measure.
“While I support our heroic first responders, I can’t in good conscience vote for legislation which to my dismay remains unfunded,” Paul said.
The measure already has passed in the House, so it now will head to the White House for the president’s signature.
After the vote, Stewart was hugged by a weeping John Feal, who as a construction worker-turnedactivist has spent years lobbying for 9/11 health care programs after being injured while working at ground zero.
Wearing a blue firefighter T-shirt, Stewart said Feal and other advocates “lifted this 9/11 community on their shoulders, and they carried them home, and I will always be so proud to be associated with it. … There have been too many funerals, too many hospices. These families deserve better.”
The moment was bittersweet, Feal said.
“We’re not celebrating, we’re not spiking a football,” he said. “Too many people are dying or have died.”
Last month, ground zero workers and their families testified in an emotional hearing featuring former NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez, who urged Congress not to close the door on others who would become sick after him.
Alvarez died weeks later, and lawmakers decided to add his name to the legislation.
After testimony from Alvarez and Stewart, the House passed the measure overwhelmingly.
Stewart went on to attack Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for what he said was a long record of slow-walking legislation for 9/11 health issues. McConnell issued a statement Tuesday morning urging support for the measure.
The bill faced a temporary setback last week when Paul and Lee urged amendments that would require the government to cut spending elsewhere to pay for the program. Those amendments were defeated by wide margins Tuesday.
The fund’s first incarnation was created for those who were killed or injured in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
To date, the fund has paid about $5 billion to about 21,000 sick or dying claimants.