After years of effort from this column and elsewhere, in 2010 Congress created the World Trade Center Health Program and then in 2015 voted to keep it open for responders and survivors until 2090. But the numbers of people hit with cancers and other diseases from the poisons of the destruction of the WTC have only grown and they are getting sicker, so the CDC-run health program would be facing cuts beginning in 2025.
There was a $1 billion added during the waning moments of last year by Congress, but that only put off the problem for a few years and the cuts now loom in 2027.
The fix is to pass a bill to permanently and fully fund the medical coverage for the heroes and victims of 9/11. After more than 20 years since the attack, it’s the duty of Congress.
While some of the early backers supporting the 9/11 community, like Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Pete King, are no longer serving in D.C., others such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler are fighting on. They have been joined by new champions like Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Dan Goldman and Anthony D’Esposito. We don’t mention their parties, because party doesn’t matter on this.
Every member of the Congress from New York should be a co-sponsor of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2023, but several are not. They must all become sponsors. Today. Missing from the roll of honor are Hakeem Jeffries, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Brian Higgins as well as the disreputable George Santos. An oversight? Inattentive staff? The excuses are irrelevant. Sign on the bill immediately, and find more sponsors from all states. That goes for the lying scoundrel Santos also; as long as he is a duly seated member, he should do some good.
Schumer is Senate majority leader and we trust he will put it on the chamber’s front burner. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy supported the full funding last year. This year, he can make it happen.
