The U.S. Senate passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, on Dec. 22 by a 206 to 60 vote.

The legislation, named for the New York City Police Detective who died in 2006 from 9/11-related respiratory disease, will provide $4.3 billion in health care over five years for those exposed to toxins, dust and smoke released by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. The legislation will also reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund to provide economic relief to those harmed by the attacks.

A national campaign of shame was directed at Senate Republicans, including Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, after they blocked a vote on the bill on Dec. 9. The earlier version would have provided for $7.4 billion over a longer period.

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart lashed out at its GOP foes on his program, The Daily Show. The New York Times labeled the filibuster by the Republicans as “a gap between their professed honor for American heroes and their shabby disdain for those who risked their health and lives at ground zero.”

“This legislation is so important to our members,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation shortly after the Senate vote, and the White House indicated that President Barack Obama would sign the bill.

“We are grateful for the hard work and effort by U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Eliot Engel and Anthony Weiner, and U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer. We are also very appreciative of the hard work of DC 37’s staff, particularly Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke, who led a citywide lobbying effort, returning time and again to Washington to speak out for the victims,” Roberts said.

“With this vote, Congress repaid a long-overdue debt and answered the emergency calls of thousands of ailing 9/11 first responders and survivors,” said Maloney.

Four DC 37 members died in the 9/11 disaster, eight have died from their exposures to toxic air at Ground Zero, and more are sick and unable to work. (See 'Thanksgiving parade dream comes true for sick 9/11 responder'.)

The latest victim, NYPD Detective Kevin Czartorski, 46, died Dec. 5.