Unanimous Consent Request - S. 1602

UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST-S. 1602

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Madam President, it is about 26 months since the assault on our families, our people, and our invincibility that took place at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania where it was so heroically disrupted on its way to a target. Therefore, I am outraged that we can't find enough time to further pay attention to the memory of the 9/11 victims by passing a bill to extend the deadline for victims' families, enabling them to apply for victims' compensation which is in a fund that was passed in the Senate and passed in the House and that is about to expire.

Though we have just been through a difficult and contentious period with some acrimony, no matter how much I or others might have agreed with the outcome, our business for this year is not yet done. We are facing the expiration of this compensation fund, and there are lots of families who have yet to participate in this program that was designed for them.

The need for this 9/11 victims bill is urgent. If we don't vote on it before Thanksgiving, this bill will become obsolete because the current filing deadline is December 22, 2003.

We are reminded that a truly joyous part of the year is just beginning. It starts with Thanksgiving, goes through to Christmas and Hanukkah. It is just around the corner. A lone, anonymous Republican Senator is holding up a bill that would make these holidays less stressful for the 9/11 families. As we requested or will request in a unanimous consent request, the Senate must take up and pass this bill today in order to fulfill our commitments to compensate the victims' families.

So far, out of approximately 3,000 killed, about 1,800 families, or only 60 percent of those eligible, have filed claims on behalf of relatives who were killed. This is far too low a percentage.

Helping the families of 9/11 victims is not just the responsibility of the Senators in the Northeast, it is a national commitment we made that we owed to those who suffered on that tragic day. I am distressed by the fact that because of somebody in the majority, having just spent 39 hours of time talking about a handful of judicial nominees, we can't even commit a few minutes today to take up a simple but critical bill and pass it.

The bill is vital to thousands of Americans who lost loved ones or who were themselves injured in the 9/11 attacks. Many of these families will mourn forever. Many of these families cannot yet bring to closure the terrible tragedy that befell their families. They are just not emotionally ready to begin the process of closure by applying to the victims compensation fund while their grief is still surrounding them.

Imagine the Thanksgiving table without a son or a daughter or a mother or a father or a child. How sad that is. And we walk away from here not yet completing the task.

I quickly point out, there are no additional funds required. Those funds were allocated 2 years ago when the fund was established. It is a rather confusing application, 40 pages. The difference is, if one applies to the fund, there is a settlement available. But in some cases, it may seem better for them to resort to the courts. That is why we have the system we have.

It is hard to proceed and leave here without trying to do something about the condition in which we leave these families. We should help them get through the holiday period and encourage them a little bit further.

The fund was estimated to cost $5 billion by Mr. Feinberg, who is the master in charge of the distribution. He is an outstanding lawyer who took this job, volunteered to do it. He notes that only $1 billion out of $5 billion that might be required or available were expended. Many others have been waiting. Some victims' families are non-native-English speakers, working hard to understand, get people to help them comprehend the application forms. Many others have been waiting to receive the required information from their loved ones' former employers in order to complete the forms.

S. 1602, the bill that Senator Leahy and I introduced, keeps our promise to the 9/11 victims' families by extending the deadline to apply to the fund to the end of 2004, roughly a year from now. We are simply giving these grief-stricken families some more time to fill out this cumbersome application. Senators BOXER, CLINTON, CORZINE, DODD, DURBIN, LIEBERMAN, and SCHUMER are cosponsors of this bill.

I think it is really unfair that the Republican majority will not permit us to just move this bill along. President Bush and other Republicans were anxious to appear with the 9/11 families soon after the tragedy to show that they shared in some way their grief and to try to alleviate their distress. Now the cameras are gone. We should not, however, forget that we have these obligations to these families. This bill is unfinished business with a deadline.

I had hoped the majority leader and my Republican colleagues would allow us to pay our respects to these families who need our help.

On September 11 of this past year, I spoke at an event in Central Park, NY, that was arranged by a company called Cantor Fitzgerald. They lost 700 of their 1,000 employees. One of those who perished was a very close friend of my oldest daughter. They had worked together at another firm. My daughter went to law school and her friend went to work for Cantor Fitzgerald and was one of the 700 and left 3 young children and a husband behind-so unwilling to believe that his wife, the mother of these children, was taken away, that he visited hospitals in the area for some time after the attack took place, hoping that there was an error someplace, that he might find his wife, and that some way they would be able to continue. But she is gone.

When I spoke to the people from Cantor Fitzgerald, about 4,000 people were there. And, again, this company lost 700. The people they touched is a far greater number than the number who actually perished. They were looking to us for some leadership, some recognition that they paid a price for their sheer courage, many of whom died helping others, including the policemen and the fire personnel, the emergency personnel.

There are all kinds of stories, including the one about the man who walked up a flight to try to carry a woman down and both of them perished in the process. The stories are replete with heroism and courage-but dying.

I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 1602 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be read the third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, without intervening action or debate.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Mr. CORNYN. I object, Madam President.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Madam President, I know I have to surrender the microphone. I do it sadly, because I don't believe that the Senator from Texas, who raises the objection on behalf of the Republican Party, really would object to extending a deadline-no more money and nothing else has to be done except to say to these people that we have not forgotten. We remember that you died when America's invincibility was shattered. That is a day that will mark our coming and going forever. One need only remember what happens every time you take your shoes off at the airport, or you are forced to show your ID, or you are searched with a magnetic wand, or whatever, or the fence surrounding the Washington Monument so you cannot see it at ground level when you pass by on Constitution Avenue and fortresses are being built out there. They did this to us and we are going to have to live with that.

I wish reconsideration would be taken here in a discussion with the majority leader and the Senator from Texas, if he cares to be involved, and that we can pass that bill.

I yield the floor.