Photo Courtesy of the Office of the Governor
The Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act is designed to ensure that the VCF is fully funded and will remain open for those that will become ill in the future.
By Michael V. Cusenza
September 11 first responders and survivors on Monday joined a group of bipartisan elected officials on Capitol Hill to introduce the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act and call for its swift passage.
The measure would ensure that all Sept. 11 first responders and survivors who have been injured by the toxins at Ground Zero and have certified Sept. 11 illnesses would receive their full compensation through the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund now and into the future as more become ill with Sept. 11 cancers. The bill would also close the funding gap recently announced by VCF Special Master Rupa Bhattacharyya.
Earlier this month, Bhattacharyya indicated that a VCF funding shortfall has forced her to significantly decreasing future payouts. For any claim or amendment submitted on or before Feb. 1, 2019, the payout will be reduced by 50 percent. For any claim or amendment submitted on or after Feb. 2, 2019, the payout will be reduced by 70 percent.
“The stark reality of the data leaves me no choice,” Bhattacharyya said.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Monday noted that the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act is designed to ensure that the VCF is fully funded and will remain open for those that will become ill in the future.
“Just over a week ago, 9/11 heroes all over the country learned the horrible news that the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund will need to make severe cuts. Cancer rates in the 9/11 first responder community are rising faster than ever before, and that means our 9/11 heroes are going to need the VCF more urgently than ever before. Congress must not sit idly by ignoring this suffering and passing it off as someone else’s problem while drastic cuts are made to the VCF program,” Gillibrand said. “We must pass this bipartisan bill to make the VCF permanent with full funding so that when our 9/11 heroes get that terrifying call from the doctor, they’ll at least have the peace of mind that the VCF will be there for them and their families. We must honor our 9/11 heroes, and that means giving them the support they earned and deserve and urgently need.”
Uniformed Firefighters Association President Gerard Fitzgerald added, “Though money doesn’t replace the victims’ lives cut short or adversely impacted by 9/11, it does help ease the tremendous burden of financial distress caused by the loss of life or the chronic injuries sustained by first responders. It would be unconscionable for Congress to allow this to expire and immoral to leave families without the very little compensation their loved ones earned on one of the most tragic days in American history. Sept. 11 wasn’t only an attack on New York, it was an attack on America—and New York’s first responders heroically answered. Still today, the actions of terrorists continue to attack New York’s first responders, and America and the United States Congress needs to answer.”
