Public Employee Press

U.S. Senate will take up 9/11 health bill

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Sept. 29 to pass the historic 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides long-term medical care and monitoring for the first-responders, cleanup and recovery workers who were exposed to the toxic air of Ground Zero.

The bill, HR 847, would also reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund that provides economic aid to those harmed by the terrorist attacks.

The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate, where leaders have agreed to put the $7.4 billion plan on the legislative calendar when lawmakers return to Washington after the November elections.

The House vote was "an important and historic step toward providing health care for thousands of Sept. 11, 2001, responders and recovery workers, including DC 37 members and community residents," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

Roberts lauded the efforts of Congress members Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Anthony Weiner, the entire New York delegation and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in getting the bill through the House.

"The workers who participated in the heroic rescue effort at Ground Zero were exposed to toxic dust and fumes, despite the Bush administration's claim that the air was safe," said Gerald W. McEntee, the president of AFSCME, DC 37's parent union. "Now thousands of them are ill, and many have died from resulting respiratory diseases and other health problems."

DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. Director Lee Clarke spearheaded the campaign for the bill in New York City, and the union organized several trips to Washington to provide testimony and lobby legislators.

On Sept., 8, as the House vote neared, Clarke addressed a news conference at the World Trade Center site. Surrounded by Congressional leaders, DC 37 members and representatives of other unions, she said that since the attack, DC 37 has lost eight members to 9/11-related diseases.

The bill is named for a city Police Officer who died in 2006 of a respiratory disease caused by his participation in the 9/11 rescue and recovery operations.