Providing for Consideration of H.R. 847, James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Within the next 30 minutes or so, about four, perhaps five, buses of people are going to arrive on the West front of the Capitol and walk in here and fill up these Chambers. These are people who, almost every single one of them, are to some degree a victim of September 11. They are people who aren't going to run very fast; although, they were, not so long ago, very healthy. These are people who, after September 11, not because it was their job, although some of them are professional firefighters and first responders, but because they are patriotic Americans, they went down to Ground Zero and, with their hands, literally, helped dig out our city and our country.

It was not just from New York. We all remember iconically that the days after September 11, if you stood on the West Side Highway of Manhattan and looked at the license plates of the fire trucks, of the cars, of the ambulances, they were from all around the country. Every single district--434, in fact, of the 435 districts have someone who has that 9/11 cough.

Nine years later, 900 Americans have died from 9/11-related illnesses. Now, they're going to come here and they're going to fill up these galleries, and they don't know a motion to recommit from a suspension. They don't know what the rule is. They don't know what the number is. All that they know is that, by degrees, every single day they're dying. They're dying from diseases they didn't have. These are some of the most vigorous people you can imagine. The fact that they're coming here--you are going to see people in wheelchairs who, on that day, were healthy and vigorous. James Zadroga, for whom the bill is named, one of the fittest guys you can imagine, dead today because of 9/11-related illnesses.

My colleagues on both sides of the aisle, this is a fierce political time of year. No one's more political than I, and no one's more partisan than I. I am proud to be a Democrat. I'm going to fight very hard to win my election. I'm going to fight very hard to make sure you guys lose yours. But if there's one day of the year, if there's one item on the calendar where people like me and Peter King are working shoulder to shoulder where we're trying to figure out a way to do the right thing and put aside politics, this should be the day.

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This is the day that we can stand up and say, You know what? If you really believe philosophically we shouldn't take care of these people, vote ``no.'' But let's try not to make mischief. Let's try to talk about this in a serious, adult way. And I'm convinced that we're going to do the right thing. If this is the last thing we do in this Congress, let's, in a bipartisan way, go home to our constituents to say to those people in the galleries, We understand, and we get it.

They are the first casualties of the war in Afghanistan, and the amount of money that we're going to spend would not support the war in Afghanistan more than 11 days. These people have been waiting 9 years. Let's not have any more people die because of the attacks of September 11.

Let's pass the September 11 Act that was sponsored by Peter King and Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler. This is something that affects every single district in this country. Let us do the right thing. And if you believe the right thing is to take care of these people, please vote ``yes'' on the rule. Please vote ``yes'' on the bill. Please vote ``no'' on any troublesome amendments to the bill that come up later.

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