An advisory panel examining which conditions should be covered by the Zadroga Act appeared close Wednesday to recommending that some cancers be included, members said.
While the fund covers numerous illnesses linked with breathing 9/11 toxins, cancer is currently excluded because of insufficient scientific proof — a decision criticized by first responders and city officials who believe the link is crystal clear.
Evidence that there is a cancer link appears to be mounting.
More than 1,600 people who filed lawsuits claiming that their health was ruined by dust and smoke from the collapsed World Trade Center must decide by Jan. 2 whether to keep fighting in court, or drop the litigation and apply for benefits from a government compensation fund.
For some, the choice is fraught with risk.
Federal lawmakers set aside $2.76 billion last winter for people who developed illnesses after spending time in the ash-choked disaster zone.
But to be considered for a share of the aid, all potential applicants must dismiss any pending lawsuits by the deadline and give up their right to sue forever over Sept. 11, 2001, health problems. Anyone with a lawsuit still pending on Jan. 3 is barred from the program for life.
It took years of lobbying and partisan bickering, but the 9/11 Zadroga Act to help ailing Ground Zero responders finally took effect today.
The law provides $4.3 billion in guaranteed federal funding to cover health costs and financial compensation for emergency responders, recovery workers, volunteers, and residents who were affected by the attacks almost 10 years ago.
Advocates celebrated with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting against a backdrop of Star Spangled Banners at Mount Sinai’s 9/11 health clinic this morning.
National and city pols were also on hand, including Mayor Bloomberg, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and U.S. Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Charlie Rangel, and Carolyn Maloney.
The airwaves are filled with blame for Republicans for not passing the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Bill, yet that is the short-sighted view of a very long and unnecessarily drawn out issue. Blame is across the board for the last 9 years of delays.
Dear Friends, Supporters and Fellow First Responders:
As most of you are aware, the past twenty-four hours have been extremely chaotic in regards to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. I, along with fellow FealGood Foundation board members, have worked with various union leaders to keep the pressure on our elected officials. As of approximately 5:30 today our bill was moved into the “Rules Committee” of the United States House of Representatives and prepared for full House vote. While a modest victory, this should be considered a step forward to our ultimate goal. However, to our great displeasure, a date for such a vote has not yet been announced. This is unacceptable and over the next twenty-four hours we will continue to place additional pressure on leadership to give us the date we have waited nine years for.
Make no mistake, all involved in this struggle consider it an insult of the highest degree that we are forced to continue to lobby House leaders to merely place this bill on calendar. Despite this, we have been advised that the bill will be given a date for vote tomorrow, September 22, 2010. While promises to this fragile community have been made and broken so many times that I do not expect you to believe this one, we must respect the leadership our New York Congressional Delegation has provided and rely on them to ensure that this promise is kept. Tomorrow, the 9/11 community expects to be able to celebrate its victory at the same time Democratic leaders from around the country converge on New York for political appearances and fundraising.
The catch this time is that the bill also repeals the “Dont ask, Don’t Tell” military policy that bans openly gay service members: Something that the Republicans are sure to vote against. This is a good time to watch Dust to Dust; a 9/11 First Responders documentary if you have not seen it.
Senate Dems will try to attach 9/11 legislation to a military funding bill Tuesday in a surprise gambit to break a logjam on help for victims, the Daily News has learned.
The amendment would be identical to the $7.4 billion James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act pending in the House. Senate passage would raise the chances of getting the measure to President Obama, who vows to sign it.
A group of advocates consisting of 9/11 first responders and the widows of their colleagues gathered in Hauppauge Wednesday to garner support in their fight to get the 9/11 health bill, officially known as the Zadroga Bill, passed through Congress.
Jennifer McNamara, whose husband John logged more than 500 hours at Ground Zero and died of cancer in 2009, expressed her grief and frustration at the rally. “My husband died believing this bill would pass,” she said, joined by her young son, Jack.
If passed, the bill, named after the late NYPD Detective James Zadroga, would secure $7.4 billion to provide health care and compensation for thousands of first responders suffering from illnesses after working in the toxic rubble following the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. McNamara believes that if the bill had been passed already, her husband may still be alive today.
RT filmed this emotional footage of 9/11 first responders pouring their hearts out at a speech just blocks away from where the twin towers fell. The rally was in response to Congress defeating a federal bill that would have provided billions of dollars in health care for those sickened by toxins released by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, 2001.
“To pay the bill’s estimated $7.4 billion cost over 10 years, the legislation would have prevented foreign multinational corporations incorporated in tax haven countries from avoiding tax on income earned in the U.S.”
To those who voted no: You are disgusting. You are criminal.
A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts.
The bill would have provided free health care and compensation payments to 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who fell ill after working in the trade center ruins.
It failed to win the needed two-thirds majority, 255-159. The vote was largely along party lines, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats supporting the measure.
For weeks, a judge and teams of lawyers have been urging 10,000 former ground zero workers to sign on to a court-supervised settlement that would split $713 million among people who developed respiratory problems and other illnesses after inhaling trade center ash.
The court deal shares some similarities with the aid program that the federal legislation would have created, but it involves far less money. Only the most seriously ill of the thousands of police officers, firefighters and construction workers suing New York City over their exposure to the dust would be eligible for a hefty payout.
The nearly 60,000 rescue and recovery workers and community members whose health is at serious risk from their exposure to the contaminated and toxic rubble at the 2001 Ground Zero World Trade Center attacks are a step closer to receiving long-term medical care.
Yesterday the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health subcommittee approved by an overwhelming and bipartisan 25-8 vote the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 847). The bill would establish a medical monitoring and treatment program for the Sept. 11 first responders and the community members at the site of the attacks.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) one of the bill’s chief sponsors, along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), says that while progress has been “painfully slow,” today we are one important step closer to providing the brave responders and survivors of 9/11’s toxic aftermath the health care and compensation they need and deserve.
The Ground Zero rubble piles were a toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos, lead, glass fragments and other debris. The rescue workers who worked night and day to pull survivors and bodies from the rubble. those who spent months removing the debris as well as community residents, all were exposed and are now suffering the health consequences. Says Maloney:
If any adminstration started to take the plight of the 9/11 first responders seriously, they would eventually find themselves’ asking, ” how did concrete and asbestos get to be so small as to enter into people’s bloodstream, bypassing the lungs altogether? ” Of course, that’s assuming they don’t already have an idea of what caused all those buildings’ materials to be pulverized, or exploded, within seconds of collapse initiation.
The horrible reality is that the number of deaths from toxic air quality on 9/11 and following months will far outweigh the number of deaths on 9/11.
Or that John McNamara, who spent 500 hours at Ground Zero and died last August of cancer at the age of 44, would think Obama still deserves it.
Her problem: She and her husband believed in the President, voted for him, and believed he would ensure the feds passed a law to permanently care for others who answered the call after 9/11.
She began having doubts in December, when key politicians backed away from promises to pass the funding. She went to the Daily News for help reaching the White House to explain her agonizing dilemma.
“I wish he would just support this,” McNamara said of the President. “Then I could give him the badge in good conscience. I’d like to know that it’s meaningful to him.”
I just received this from 9/11 First Responder Charlie Giles…
“It has come to our attention that the reason that HR847 is being held up is due to Congressman Frank Pallone. He has not marked up the Bill in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. He promised it would be done by Nov. and still no response. 9/11 Responders are sick, tired & dying. We are now Demanding that this Bill get Marked Up & Passed. We the 9/11 Community need your help! Please call Congressman Frank Pallone’s Office in New Jersey at 732-249-8892 and also his Washington DC office at 202-225-4671. Tell them you are Demanding that Frank Pallone keep his Promise & Mark Up the Bill Now! We are no longer asking, we are demanding! Please Call both offices & flood his phone lines till he does what is right for those who served when Our Country needed us! Thank You!”
To: Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ms. Nancy Pelosi & All Congressional Representatives
We the undersigned urge Speaker of the House, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, to immediately commit to a firm date for bill HR 847: the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 to be on the floor of the House of Representatives, for a vote.
Having lost over eight hundred September 11th first responders since that horrific day, we must act now as many, many more of our Nation’s Heroes are sick and dying due to the time they spent at the World Trade Center site. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Brian 
