James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise again today in support of H.R. 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.

Voting for this bill is essential if we want to honor the true heroes of 9/11. These heroes are the firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, and volunteers who risked their lives to help the country during one of its darkest periods only to be misinformed by that country with respect to conditions at the World Trade Center crash site. They deserve our help. It is our duty to provide it to them.

In the days after 9/11, Congress came together and--in a truly bipartisan effort--conceived of a system through which the victims of those terrible attacks could obtain medical treatment and just compensation. As we learned in various hearings and markups before the Judiciary Committee, that system was a stunning success.

The 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, for example, quickly compensated those who were injured or lost close family members in the attacks. Just over $7 billion was paid out in a 33-month period, with overhead costs of less than 3 percent, and with 97 percent of the families of deceased victims opting into the fund rather than pursuing tort relief in the courts. As Special Master Kenneth Feinberg stated in his written testimony before our committee earlier this year, ``this was one of the most efficient, streamlined and cost effective programs in American history.''

Despite its incredible success, however, the job is not quite done. There remain thousands of people who require the protection of the VCF, but who--by no fault of their own--were unable to take advantage of it when it was available. This includes first responders, workers, and volunteers from around the country who rallied to help locate survivors, recover the dead, and clean up debris from the fallen towers. These are the people that the Nation and the world watched on television as they dropped everything in their own lives to rush to aid those who needed it the most.

They were told by their government that the air was safe to breathe. But many are now sick and suffering because of their exposure to the toxic dust that covered much of lower Manhattan.

People are sick and will continue to get sick because of their exposure to World Trade Center dust. We must resolve this problem, and that means passing H.R. 847.

The bill would provide medical monitoring and treatment to the continuing victims of the 9/11 attacks. It would also reopen the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund to provide compensation to those victims.

One thing is clear: the status quo is unacceptable. Worker's compensation has failed. Medical programs aren't covering enough people. And the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Fund, created by Congress to resolve claims such as those that remain outstanding, has instead used the money appropriated to contest each and every one of those claims. Six years and $300 million in administrative and legal costs later, the Captive Insurance Fund has settled less than 10 claims.

I believe this bill, while perhaps not perfect, goes a long way to establishing a fair and just program to care for and compensate those who continue to bear the deep scars from Ð9/11. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, which is the result of a great deal of work on both sides of the aisle, and in the end is just the right thing to do.

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