Permanently Fund 9/11 Victims' Compensation: Pols

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Politicians, advocates and former Daily Show host Jon Stewart called on Congress to permanently fund a federal program for 9/11 victims and their families on Monday — days after the program's chief revealed the stockpile is drying up.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Peter King (R-NY) announced legislation to permanently fund the September 11th Victims' Compensation Fund. Previously, lawmakers have had to reallocate funding every few years under a temporary fix to ensure victims and their families were able to file claims and receive full compensation.

"Anything less on our parts is shameful," Gillibrand said at a Washington D.C. rally. "Anything less sends a cruel message to our heroes and their families that Congress is shrugging its shoulders at their suffering and their loss."

Stewart, a longtime advocate of 9/11 victims' compensation funding, said even the conversation of whether or not to pass the bill is "bull----."

"This is theatre," said Stewart. "It's bull----. You know it, and I know it."

"It's an embarrassment to us and our country," he said, adding the program already exists and works well. "It's Congress' job to fund it properly and let these people live in peace."

Of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund's $7.4 billion, the fund's Special Master Rupa Bhattacharyya said earlier this month that $2.4 billion was left over to cover more than 20,000 claims and thousands that had not yet been filed through December 2020.

First-responders' and other survivors' claims were expected to be cut by half for pending claims and 70 percent for future claims, according to the pols.

Karen Gaines, a widow of an NYPD first-responder, said at the rally she is among the compensation fund recipients who is expecting her claims to be reduced by half.

Her husband, Scott Gaines, died in September 2017 after a 20-month battle with 9/11-related cancer.

"I only stand as one person, but I'm representing a much larger community that desperately needs Congress' help to please fully fund the VCF," Gaines said.

The 9/11 compensation fund assists anyone who suffered harm from the September 11th terrorist attacks and the subsequent toxic debris removal, including first-responders and their families to bystanders on 9/11, such as students, workers, and residents.

One former Stuyvesant High School student, who suffers from 9/11-related ailments, called for the compensation act to be permanently funded on Monday.

"We had been put into a dangerous situation when we were not old enough to advocate for ourselves," said Lila Nordstrom, now a California resident.

The government told residents it was safe to return back to their Lower Manhattan school, but she recalled "cryptic" warnings about drinking the school's water and leaving the building for lunch when she was a teenager.

She said she fears that some of her peers may ultimately be diagnosed with diseases related to the 9/11 toxins only after the fund dries up.

"This is especially disappointing because we're facing longer latency periods," said Nordstrom. "We were very young when we were exposed."