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Public
Employee Press
2009 Political
Action 9/11 health care bill advances in Congress
As Sept. 11 arrives, the debate
over federal funding for the victims of the 9/11 disaster continues into its ninth
year.
The bill to provide health care, monitoring and compensation for
workers and residents exposed to the deadly dust of the World Trade Center site
was reintroduced in the House of Representatives in February by U.S. Reps. Carolyn
Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King and Michael McMahon.
Important progress
came in June, when it was introduced in the Senate for the first time by New York
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with cosponsors Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg and
Robert Menendez.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is
named for a detective who died after working near Ground Zero. The bill would
reopen the Victims Compensation Fund until Dec. 22, 2031, for those who could
not file claims because they did not become sick until after the original 2003
deadline.
The proposal would establish the World Trade Center Health Program
to provide permanent medical monitoring and treatment for WTC responders and community
members with 9/11-related conditions.
The plan would fund the WTC Environmental
Health Center of the city Health and Hospitals Corp., which provides services
at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and Bellevue and Gouverneur hospitals in Manhattan,
as well as expand support for the city Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide
for related mental health needs.
The heroes and heroines of 9/11
deserve the help of this grateful nation, said Maloney, a prime sponsor
of the bill and a longtime advocate for comprehensive 9/11 health care legislation,
and Im very pleased that my colleagues in the Senate are now sponsoring
this vital relief effort.
The budget President
Barack Obama signed earlier this year included $70 million to fund the program
for fiscal year 2010.
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