Bipartisan Fight for 9/11 Health Funding

With many affected by the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center struggling with cancer, respiratory diseases, PTSD, and other debilitating conditions, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from New York are pushing to cover a deficit in the federal program designed to help them.

The 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Garbarino in the House and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, would close funding and eligibility gaps in the World Trade Center Health Program. “Our bill would make changes to the funding formula so the program keeps pace with rising health care costs. And it would finally allow excluded Pentagon and Shanksville responders to enroll,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

Survivors of the terrorist strike include children living or attending school in lower Manhattan, paramedics, police officers, volunteers, and family members, “those who ran toward the smoke and flames while others ran away,” they said. “There were firefighters who battled the fires for weeks. And construction workers who combed through the burning, twisted wreckage. All of them breathed in the toxic fumes and experienced physical and mental trauma no one should ever suffer.” Thousands have died from the after-effects—even more than the number who died in the initial attacks—and on Long Island, over 20,000 people are enrolled in the program with hundreds more signing up every month.

Congress delivered $1 billion for the program in last year’s budget package, but the funding fell short. “A gap still remains, and the formula still needs fixing,” the legislators said. Under the Correction Act, service members and other defense department personnel who responded to terrorist crash sites in Pennsylvania and Virginia will also be able to apply for relief.

In 2015, the health program was reauthorized until 2090. Unfortunately, the formula used to calculate how much money would be needed to care for all exposed will not keep pace with rising costs, the lawmakers noted. From 2019 to 2022, for example, health care providers’ costs for everything from labor and pharmaceuticals to supplies and services grew 16-25 percent.

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New Yorkers who would benefit from the funding were invited to a press conference in Washington to announce the bipartisan bill. Singled out were a pregnant mother of two who came home to find her Manhattan apartment covered in a thick coat of ash; a 20-year-old service member who worked to recover and bury those killed at the Pentagon; and a 19-year-old volunteer with the Sayville Community Ambulance Company who spent weeks cleaning up at Ground Zero. All three are suffering from 9/11-related health conditions.

“We welcomed Mariama, Nate, and Jamie to Washington for a news conference announcing our bipartisan legislation to address the impending World Trade Center Health Program funding shortfall,” Garbarino and Gillibrand said. “They deserve our help and care. They have endured unimaginable traumas and should not be left to suffer alone. The Sept. 11 attacks left an indelible mark on our national psyche. For those who responded to or lived near the attacks, the impact was devastating.”