[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE NEED TO REAUTHORIZE THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL JUSTICE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Serial No. 116-26
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
___________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44-133 WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JERROLD NADLER, New York, Chairman
MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania, Vice-Chair
ZOE LOFGREN, California DOUG COLLINS, Georgia, Ranking
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas Member
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr.,
HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., Wisconsin
Georgia DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL, Florida
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
KAREN BASS, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
CEDRIC L. RICHMOND, Louisiana LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas
HAKEEM S. JEFFRIES, New York JIM JORDAN, Ohio
DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island KEN BUCK, Colorado
ERIC SWALWELL, California JOHN RATCLIFFE, Texas
TED LIEU, California MARTHA ROBY, Alabama
JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland MATT GAETZ, Florida
PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana
VAL BUTLER DEMINGS, Florida ANDY BIGGS, Arizona
J. LUIS CORREA, California TOM MCCLINTOCK, California
SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas DEBBIE LESKO, Arizona
JOE NEGUSE, Colorado GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania
LUCY MCBATH, Georgia BEN CLINE, Virginia
GREG STANTON, Arizona KELLY ARMSTRONG, North Dakota
MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania W. GREGORY STEUBE, Florida
PERRY APELBAUM, Majority Staff Director & Chief Counsel
BRENDAN BELAIR, Minority Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee, Chair MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana, Ranking
JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland Member
ERIC SWALWELL, California LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas
MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania JIM JORDAN, Ohio
MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania
SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas BEN CLINE, Virginia
VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas KELLY ARMSTRONG, North Dakota
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
JAMES PARK, Chief Counsel
PAUL TAYLOR, Minority Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Page
OPENING STATEMENTS
The Honorable Steve Cohen, Chairman, Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties................ 1
The Honorable Mike Johnson, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties................ 3
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler, Chairman, Committee on the
Judiciary...................................................... 5
The Honorable Doug Collins, Ranking Member, Committee on the
Judiciary...................................................... 8
WITNESS
The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney, Member of Congress............. 9
Oral Testimony................................................. 9
Prepared Testimony............................................. 11
The Honorable Peter T. King, Member of Congress.................. 12
Oral Testimony................................................. 12
Prepared Testimony............................................. 16
Rupa Bhattacharyya, Special Master, September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund.............................................. 17
Oral Testimony................................................. 17
Prepared Testimony............................................. 18
Jacqueline Moline, Chair, Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and
Prevention, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at
Hofstra/Northwell.............................................. 26
Oral Testimony................................................. 26
Prepared Testimony............................................. 29
Lila Nordstrom, 9/11 Survivor.................................... 101
Oral Testimony................................................. 101
Prepared Testimony............................................. 103
Anesta Maria St. Rose Henry, Widow of Candidus Henry,
Construction Worker and 9/11 Responder......................... 106
Oral Testimony................................................. 106
Prepared Testimony............................................. 107
Thomas J. Mohnal, Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Ret.) and 9/11 Responder...................................... 108
Oral Testimony................................................. 108
Prepared Testimony............................................. 110
Michael O'Connell, Lieutenant, Fire Department of New York (Ret.)
and 9/11 Responder............................................. 113
Oral Testimony................................................. 113
Prepared Testimony............................................. 115
Luis Alvarez, Detective, New York Police Department (Ret.) and 9/
11 Responder................................................... 116
Oral Testimony................................................. 116
Prepared Testimony............................................. 117
Jon Stewart, Advocate for 9/11 Responders and Survivors.......... 118
Oral Testimony................................................. 118
Prepared Testimony............................................. 120
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Item for the record submitted by the Honorable Sheila Jackson
Lee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties...................................................... 137
THE NEED TO REAUTHORIZE THE
SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM
COMPENSATION FUND
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in
Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Steve Cohen
[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Cohen, Nadler, Raskin, Scanlon,
Dean, Garcia, Escobar, Jackson Lee, Johnson, Collins, Gohmert,
Jordan, Armstrong, and Cline.
Staff Present: David Greengrass, Senior Counsel; John Doty,
Senior Advisor; Lisette Morton, Director Policy, Planning, and
Member Services; Madeline Strasser, Chief Clerk; Moh Sharma,
Member Services and Outreach Advisor; Susan Jensen,
Parliamentarian/Senior Counsel; James Park, Chief Counsel; Will
Emmons, Professional Staff Member; Paul Taylor, Minority
Counsel; and Andrea Woodard, Minority Republican Professional
Staff Member.
Mr. Cohen. The Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties will come to
order.
Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the Subcommittee at any time.
I welcome everyone to today's hearing on the need to
reauthorize the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. I will
now recognize myself for an opening statement.
September 11, 2001 was among the deadliest days in American
history with almost 3,000 lives lost in New York, at the
Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, because of the
terrorist attacks on the United States on that horrible day.
The casualty number is much higher than oft-cited
statistics tell us. The fact is that we really do not know the
full casualty count from the events of that day even now almost
18 years later. That is because, years after 9/11, tens of
thousands of first responders who ran toward the raging
infernos and toxic clouds unleashed on that day, as well as
Members of the community surrounding the 9/11 crash site in New
York, continue to develop and suffer from cancers and other
severe diseases that have prematurely ended their lives or
undermined their employment and life prospects. Indeed, by one
estimate, up to 400,000 people may be at risk of developing 9/
11-related illnesses, and many of these people may not even be
aware of that fact.
In recognition of this continued suffering, Congress, among
other things, reopened the September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund in legislation passed in 2010, signed into law in 2011,
and authorized the Victims Compensation Fund for 5 years.
Congress established the original fund just 1one days after 9/
11 to provide compensation for those who were physically
injured by the attacks and for relatives of those who were
killed. That original fund operated from 2001 to 2004 and
awarded over $7 billion.
When it reopened the fund in 2011, Congress expanded the
eligibility criteria to include workers who assisted with
debris removal in the months after the attacks. Congress then
reauthorized the fund in 2015 for an additional 5 years and is
currently set to expire in December of 2020.
In reopening the Victims Compensation Fund, Congress was
addressing the fact that responders and recovery workers
reported significant higher risks of lower and upper
respiratory diseases than the general population within 5 years
of the 9/11 attacks, and 70 percent of the 9/11 first
responders suffer from new or worsened respiratory symptoms in
that time period.
These diseases only worsened in severity over time as they
developed into interstitial lung disease and sarcoidosis
conditions of which lung function substantially deteriorates
preventing adequate oxygen from entering the bloodstream and
vital organs and leading to additional life-threatening
conditions like pulmonary disease.
Now, we are seeing that one of our witnesses, Dr.
Jacqueline Moline, characterizes as a third wave of 9/11-
related illnesses, including increased cancer rate among first
responders and community Members since 2015.
Part of that reason is that cancer can have a very long
latency period, meaning the symptoms of the disease may not
manifest in a person for decades after the initial exposure to
carcinogens. In the face of these trends, the fund, which is
overseen by the Department of Justice, has done an admirable
job. As of April 30, 2019, the Victims Compensation Fund
received nearly 50,000 claims, found 24,000 claimants to be
eligible for compensation--it is about half--and made
additional or revised awards for 28,000 claims; awarded a total
of than $5 billion as of April 30.
Unfortunately, the fund is now facing a funding crisis, one
that is not of its own making. When Congress reauthorized the
Victims Compensation Fund in 2105, it prohibited the fund from
spending more than the appropriated $7.4 billion to pay awards
in administrative expenses.
By law, the fund must annually reassess its policies and
procedures to assure, among other things, that it does not
exceed the spending cap.
Yet, since 2015, the Victims Compensation Fund has seen an
increase in claims driven by various factors, including a
marked increase in cancer claims and claims from the survivor
population. The result is that, effective February 25, 2019,
the fund was forced to institute substantial cuts to pending
and future awards: 50 percent cuts for claims on or before
February 1, 2019, and 70 percent cuts for claims filed
thereafter.
Congress has proposed a solution, H.R. 1327, the Never
Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September
11th Victim Compensation Fund Act, would authorize the VCF
until 2090 to ensure that sufficient funds are available to pay
future claims, require payment of any award amounts that were
cut, and make a number of other useful changes. By enacting
this legislation, we will not have to force 9/11 responders and
survivors to come begging to Congress every 5 years to step up
and do the right thing.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill. I am proud
because this is not simply a New York event. I see Mr. Zeldin
is here, who represents part of New York and is showing his
interest, as well as Mrs. Maloney and Mr. King. Mr. Nadler has
been a champion of this issue and as chairman of this Committee
and primarily responsible for this hearing. This was an
American tragedy, an American event, and I recall it so
vividly.
I was in New York within a month and going to a baseball
championship game and ran into Guiliani, who, at the time, was
a friendly guy, and got me somehow down to 9/11. I went down
there and had my mask, and you name it, walked around in the
debris.
I commend all of you for what you did. You put yourself and
your life at risk. We know that, and you need to be
compensated. You are American heroes.
Representatives Maloney and King have introduced the bill
that will affect the work on behalf of 9/11 responders and
survivors. I thank them. I thank Representative Collins for his
cosponsorship of the bill. I am thankful for the responders for
their service and sacrifice for our country. Grateful to them,
the survivors, and all the witnesses in to testify before us
today.
This is a bit unusual, because this is my Subcommittee
which I chair, and I am chairing it now. It is a special moment
for Mr. Nadler. This is an issue that is very close to him and
his constituents. For that reason, I will surrender the chair
to him to oversee this meeting, which is appropriate. I guess
this is the time that I will do it. I don't know if it is the
right time, but this is the time I am doing it.
Well, I will recognize Mr. Johnson then, and then I am
surrendering the chair.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Chairman.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, in New York, in
Pennsylvania, and Virginia took innocent lives on American soil
on a scale not seen since the attack on Pearl Harbor. It also
unified the country as brave first responders searched for
bodies and headed a massive recovery effort.
In New York, the first responders did this amidst a
smoldering pile of over 220 stories of building crushed into a
dense accumulated mountain of steaming hot toxic chemicals that
burned for months. My wife and I visited that site just a month
after, and it was still seemingly on fire.
Many sacrificed their own health in their efforts to help
their fellow Americans in and around debris that included two
steel beams in the shape a cross, which now rests in the
National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
Just as that cross stood as a sign of hope for so many, so
too do our programs to help take care of those to whom we owe
our deepest gratitude.
After 9/11, a federally funded program was created to
compensate and pay medical expenses for those who developed
respiratory and other illnesses related primarily to the
rehabilitation of the site of the former World Trade Center.
Payments made from the fund are administered by a special
master who has announced that the fund is running out of money
and with some current and future claims that are yet unpaid.
That fund was authorized in the manner in which all Federal
programs should be authorized, namely for a limited duration
within which time Congress is able to periodically revisit the
program's operation and fiscal solvency before potentially
reauthorizing and funding it further as it goes forward into
the future.
The special master who runs this program and who is with us
here today is a very well regarded public servant, and I am
aware of no problems with the program's Administration. We have
a lot of confidence in this program.
So, I support reauthorizing the program in a manner that is
fair to everyone. This is unquestionably the right thing to do,
and I expect that this bill will pass with broad bipartisan
support.
I am personally myself the son of a firefighter who was
critically burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty
back in 1984. And I know the sacrifices and the needs of these
heroes and their families personally. In addition to my dad
being burned over 80 percent of his body, third-degree burns,
he inhaled toxic chemicals in a fire, and he suffered the
remaining 32 years of his life as a result of that tragedy.
The only concern we have here, and you will hear people
talk about it, is just the latest proposal to reauthorize the
program, H.R. 1327, creates an unlimited authorization for
appropriations for the fund and extends it until the year 2090.
The Congressional Budget Office isn't able to determine the
cost of such an extended program. Of course, its rules limit it
to predicting costs just 10 years out.
So, right now, we have a $22 trillion Federal debt. That is
just the thing that keeps us up at night. It makes us have to
address these issues as responsibly as possible. I know
everyone here understands and feels that burden.
Our objective, of course, is fairness to all. By all, we
mean all Americans, including first responders nationwide who
have heeded the call to service through the smoldering remains
of terrorist attacks but also through the dense wildfire smoke
of California and the wreckage following a Kansas tornado and
the floods in Louisiana and all other disasters and tragedies
everywhere.
We have to approach the reauthorization of this fund today
in the same way we would approach any fund designed to
compensate first responders nationwide and other similar
circumstances in a way capable of making future funds available
for future heroes as well.
With that, we look forward to hearing from all of our
witnesses here today, including those who work so selflessly
under very dangerous conditions to help our Nation heal.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Nadler. [Presiding.] Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Eighteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden
orchestrated the deadliest terrorist attack in American
history, killing almost 3,000 people in a single day and
wounding thousands of more. In New York City, the attack
happened in my district. The attacks created an environmental
nightmare when the Twin Towers collapsed in Lower Manhattan.
Hundreds of tons of contaminates poured onto the streets and
covered first responders, residents, office workers, and
students in a cloud of dust.
When many of us think of 9/11, we think of planes flying
into the Twin Towers or we see the towers collapsing. There
other pictures that day that captured the gravity of the loss,
the scale of the destruction, and the massive amounts of toxins
that were released into the air on that Tuesday morning. I want
to share those images with you today.
As you can see, if you look at the jumbotrons, I suppose.
As you can see, New York City was covered in toxic ash. The air
was full of debris, dust, and other deadly toxins. Many of my
constituents were forced to flee their homes. Firefighters,
police, and rescue and recovery workers from around the country
came to our aid, working in horrible dangerous conditions to
help one another and help the United States get back on its
feet.
I was in Washington with my wife when the attacks began,
and we immediately rushed to return to New York City by train
that day since all flights had been grounded. What sticks with
me from that day was eerie silence that greeted us when we
stepped out of Penn Station. The city seemed empty. Nothing
moving. No people. No cars. No buses. No subway trains.
Nothing. The only thing that was there was a strange odor that
hung in the air.
The next day, on September 12th, I walked the streets of
Lower Manhattan through the rivers of ash and debris, and I saw
the thinkable damage. I was there with then-Mayor Giuliani. We
were soon joined by then-President George Bush, then-Senator
Hillary Clinton, and Senator Chuck Schumer. There was no
question in our minds that we must work together in a
bipartisan manner to do what it took to get New York back on
its feet, to get the country moving again, and to get help for
everyone affected by the attacks.
Within days following the attack, a problem arose. The EPA
insisted, contrary to ample evidence, that the air in Lower
Manhattan in Brooklyn was safe to breath. That was not true. It
was an untruth that caused many thousands of people to become
sick and, tragically, for many of those same people to die. It
was an untruth I worked for many years to expose. Because as we
knew even then, the air was not safe to breathe. In fact, it
was deadly.
Thousands of responders from all over the country worked on
the site. Thousands and thousands of responders and workers and
residents were exposed to horrible toxins and were not provided
with protective equipment. The Federal Government did not step
in to conduct a proper comprehensive cleanup of the schools,
offices, and residents in Lower Manhattan. They told my
constituents to clean up asbestos and other toxins from their
apartments with a damp cloth and no protective equipment.
Today, as a result of the attacks and as a result of those
lies, more than 95,000 responders and survivors are sick. It
was for those tens of thousands of brave selfless and innocent
responders and survivors that Congress came together in 2010,
after years of struggles and negotiations, to pass the James
Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act and to fulfill our
moral obligation, as Lincoln said, to care for him who shall
have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.
The Zadroga Act established a national health program to
care for those made sick by exposure to toxins in the days,
weeks, and months after the 9/11 attack. It also reopened the
Victim Compensation Fund, the VCF, to provide support for sick
responders or survivors.
As the programs are set to expire in 2015, Congress once
again came together in a bipartisan manner and reauthorized
them. We made the health program essentially permanent and set
the expiration date far into the future, the year 2090,
ensuring that all those affected by the attacks on September
11, 2001, would have the healthcare they need for as long as
they need it. The 2015 reauthorization only extended the VCF
for 5 years.
Today, the programs are mostly working. Residents of 433
out of 435 congressional districts receive care through the 9/
11 health program. More than 28,000 individuals representing
all 50 States have been found eligible for compensation from
the VCF. More than $5.1 billion has been awarded.
Our actions as a Congress have touched many lives, provided
comfort to the sick, and helped families struggling with the
loss of a loved one to pay the bills and send children to
college. We know all too well that people who are sick now will
only get sicker. Unfortunately, many will die. Those who are
not sick now may become sick years in the future as diseases
surface after long latency periods. We are already seeing the
impact that long delay cancers have had. Nearly 11,000
responders and survivors have been diagnosed with cancer to
date, a number which will only go up. It is clear the 5-year
reauthorization was not nearly long enough.
Further, as the number of sick responders and survivors
continues to rise, the limited resources Congress provided to
the VCF have been strained. Now, because of the greater number
of sick people anticipated, the thousands of sick responders
and survivors are facing up to 70 percent cuts in compensation
because the money is running out. These cuts were certainly not
intended by Congress, and we know that the Administration and
the special master are not making these cuts maliciously.
Rather, the VCF is working to keep the funded--I am sorry--is
working to keep the program funded as long as possible to give
every sick responder and survivor at least some compensation.
That does not mean we can simply accept these cuts and
allow the program to expire when so many more men, women, and
young adults will need compensation and care. That is what
brings us here today. A 70-percent cut in compensation to
victims of 9/11 is simply intolerable, and Congress must not
allow it. Congress also must not allow the VCF to expire while
people are still sick and the World Trade Center Health Program
is still operational. The time has come for us to act.
In the past, I would have had to call upon the Committee
chairman to call a hearing or to schedule a markup on
legislation to address these problems. Today, as chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, I am able to convene this hearing and
to announce that we will not wait to mark up this legislation.
We will hold a markup of this legislation tomorrow.
There are two moral imperatives that dictate why we must
act. Number one, it was America that was attacked on 9/11, not
just New York or Washington, DC.
Number two, it was the Federal Government that bears some
responsibility because it told everyone it was safe to return
to Lower Manhattan when it knew that it was not. Now the
Federal Government must bear the burden to care for and support
the people affected by the September 11 attacks and their
aftermath.
Again, I am proud to work in a bipartisan manner with my
long-time colleagues Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Peter
King and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to
reauthorize these critical programs. I am pleased that we also
have the support of Senator Cory Gardner and our very own
Ranking Member of the full Judiciary Committee, Representative
Doug Collins. In fact, we have more than 300 bipartisan
cosponsors of this bill in the House. I want to thank the
people in this room for everything they have done to get so
many congressional cosponsors so quickly. I urge all of my
colleagues to work with us and support a reauthorization and to
move this bill through Congress to the President's desk as
quickly as possible.
Just as we stood together as a Nation the days following
September 11, 2001, and just as we stood together in 2010 and
2015 to authorize and fund these vital programs, we must now
join forces one more time to ensure that the heroes of 9/11 are
not abandoned when they need us most. We must sustain the VCF.
We must protect the heroes and survivors of 9/11. We must pass
the Never Forget the Heroes Act of 2019, and we will.
Before I yield back, I want to add one more thing. For many
people in this country, and perhaps even people on this
committee, 9/11 ended that day. Perhaps they light a candle in
church every year on the anniversary. Perhaps they pray for the
victims. For our panel of witnesses today, for many people in
the audience, for Congresswoman Maloney, for Congressman King,
and for me and my staff, 9/11 never ended. We live every day
with the events of that morning and the impact of the decisions
made by the Federal Government in the aftermath.
While I know it can be frustrating watching a body as large
as the U.S. Congress work its will, when we do act, we can
bring tremendous resources and the strength of the entire
Federal Government to bear on a problem, and we can improve the
lives of so many. It is my hope and my sincere wish that
Congress will Act swiftly to stop these devastating cuts, to
extend this program, and to provide as much peace of mind as we
possibly can to those who continue to suffer from the 9/11
attacks. We will never forget.
I yield back.
It is now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member of
the full committee, the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Collins,
for his opening statement.
Mr. Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a day in
which we do come together in this committee, I think with a
common purpose. I want to thank Congresswoman Maloney and
Congressman King. Also my friend Lee Zeldin, who has a number
of these folks in his district, along with you, Mr. Chairman,
who have been carrying this fight. Because as we look across
what are talking about here, we have to remember that, on that
day, depraved Islamic terrorists designed September 11 attacks
to murder as many innocent Americans as possible either on that
day or in the future is what happened.
Those attacks killed almost 3,000 people and left a
smoldering pile of toxic debris in New York. In the wake of
such depravity, thousands of rescuers responded with nobility
and courage. First responders scaled smoldering piles of
debris, exhumed victims with dignity, and restored Ground Zero
to its current place in the center of a loving, resilient
community, a place that includes the National September 11
Memorial.
Even yesterday, this lives on, as I heard a story just
yesterday that they had identified another victim 18 years
later. No one is forgotten. No one is left behind. That is what
our country symbolizes.
It is also fitting Congress do more than memorialize it. We
must help take care of those heroes. The 9/11 first responders,
like all first responders, deserve to have their sacrifices
recognized. This program will mitigate the damage these public
servants and their families experienced as a direct result of
their sacrifice on behalf of others.
Legislation has been introduced to reauthorize the current
September 11 Victims Compensation Fund. While the fiscal impact
of this legislation isn't clear at the moment, what is clear is
our collective duty to see that our first responders are
treated fairly in accordance with what they have already given
to a grateful Nation.
I must also say on a personal note: You never forget. I
carried the images that I am proud Chairman actually showed
this morning with me when I was in Iraq. For the time I served
there was a reminder of the service that had already been
given, not knowing on that morning what would happen but
knowing on that morning it will not be forgotten. What we are
seeing today is--I can remember back as a chaplain, what I
serve as in Air Force, and still do, 19 years later, is I
remember Chaplain Judge being carried out, the first, the
honest sacrifice of one serving others and the many that were
to follow. Those are the images that bring us to this hearing
today. We can have differences. But they became heroes, angels
in heaven, if you would, without asking. They began that day
with hope, with love on a morning very similar as today. Out of
the fires of terror revealed the steel of our country. It is
still revealed in our people today.
With that, it is our time to act. It is our time to finish
this. It is our time to remember the work, the life, the
pictures, and the families that we will never forget. In fact,
we will look back on and find our strength in those who went
before and who are suffering now.
With that, I yield back.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Mr. Collins.
Before I introduce the witnesses, I want to note the
presence here of our colleague Lee Zeldin. I want to take this
opportunity to thank him for his great work in supporting the
bill and in gathering a lot of the cosponsors.
I will now introduce the witnesses on the first panel. The
Honorable Carolyn Maloney represents the 12th Congressional
District of New York. She has been a Member of Congress since
1993. Among her many accomplishments, she is one of the lead
sponsors of H.R. 1327, the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent
Authorization of September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act.
She has long been a leader in fighting to help victims of the
9/11 attacks and has been a staunch advocate for the Victim
Compensation Fund.
The Honorable Peter King represents the Second
Congressional District of New York. He has also been a Member
of Congress since 1993 and, among other things, has been a
tireless champion of 9/11 responders and survivors. He has long
worked with Representative Maloney and with me to create the
World Trade Center Health Program and to reopen and sustain the
Victim Compensation Fund.
Please note that your written statements will be entered
into the record in their entirety. Accordingly, I ask that you
summarize your testimony in 5 minutes. I am supposed to read
this, which you know. To help you stay within that time, there
is a timing light on the table. When the light switches from
green to yellow, you have 1 minute to conclude your testimony.
When the light turns red, it signals your 5 minutes have
expired. I hope the Members of the second panel have heard
that, so I don't have to repeat that later.
Representative Maloney, you may begin.
TESTIMONY OF THE HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY
Mrs. Maloney. Thank you. Thank you, Chairmen Nadler and
Cohen, Ranking Members Collins and Johnson. I want to thank you
for inviting me to testify today on the Never Forget the
Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund, which I introduced with Chairman Nadler,
King, and 90 of our colleagues.
Today, we are proud to have a strongly bipartisan bill with
306 cosponsors; 80 of them are Republican. I am grateful that
the Committee recognizes the importance of supporting 9/11
responders, survivors, and their families and the urgency of
passing this bill as soon as possible.
We recently remembered D-Day, a day when all Americans came
together to defend democracy, liberty, and freedom. Though we
are not Members of the greatest generation, our first
responders have defended and many gave their lives for just
those same values.
On September 11, this country was horrifically attacked
killing exactly 2,997 innocent people. They were murdered, and
a thousand more were injured in New York, Shanksville,
Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon simply for being American or
being on American soil.
Yet, it still gets worse. The death toll from that terrible
day continues to grow. In the years since 9/11, tens of
thousands more men and women, including first responders,
relief workers, local residents have lost their lives or gotten
sick as a result of their exposure to toxic chemicals,
pulverized glass, powdered cement at the crash sites even
though the U.S. Government told them repeatedly over and over
again that it was safe to work at the site.
Soon deaths from 9/11 diseases may outnumber those lost on
that fateful day. 9/11 was an attack on America. In response,
our Nation committed to finding those responsible and holding
them accountable. The first veterans of the war on terror were
the first responders, the volunteers, and the survivors of 9/
11. Today, they live all over the country in 433 out of the 435
congressional districts. They are firefighters, police
officers, construction workers, electrical engineers,
volunteers from every single State who answered the call and
traveled to New York or D.C. or Pennsylvania to help with the
recovery.
We have a moral obligation to provide support and
compensation to these heroes and their families. Not only did
they come to our aid when we needed them, but many are sick
because they trusted the Federal Government when it said that
the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe.
In October 2011, a 9-year fight, the James Zadroga 9/11
Health and Compensation Act of 2010 was signed into law,
establishing the World Trade Center Health Program and
reopening and revising the September 11 Victims Compensation
Fund. These programs provide health monitoring and financial
compensation to first responders, survivors, and their
families.
In 2015, I am proud to say that Congress permanently
reauthorized the health program. The Victims Compensation Fund
will expire next year if we don't Act because it was only given
a 5-year extension. Making matters worse, the special master of
the fund announced in February that the fund would not make it
to 2020 because of a funding shortfall partly due to the
increase in cancer claims. To extend its life, the VCF was
forced to cut all pending awards by 50 to 70 percent. This was
devastating to the survivors and their families. For the last 3
1/2 months, they have not been getting the help they deserve,
the help that our Nation owes them.
Since February 2019, more than 830 compensation recipients
have received reduced awards from the VCF because of this
shortfall. This is unacceptable, and we need to correct it.
They shouldn't have to worry about the program running out of
funding, and they should not have to come back to Congress
every 5 years to beg for program reauthorization. That kind of
uncertainty is unfair and unsustainable. Our legislation would
make these families whole by requiring the special master to
revisit these reduced claims and pay out the differences.
I must tell you that, as evidenced by the more than 300
cosponsors of the Never Forget the Heroes Act, this is not a
Democrat or Republican issue or a New York issue. These are
Americans of all political persuasions in every corner of our
country who are counting on us. Our whole country owes them a
debt, a debt that we can never fully repay.
Look at the people who are sitting here with us today.
These are the heroes and the heroines, the reasons that we are
fighting so hard for this program. I want to conclude by
recognizing them and thanking them and their families for the
hours that they have spent lobbying, working to get this
program reauthorized. You will hear from a few of them today.
They continue to be our inspiration every single day that we
fight for their healthcare and their financial security.
As much as I love being with them and talking to them, they
should not have to come back to Congress for another
reauthorization. We are counting on you to make this program
permanent, to reauthorize it. That is the least that we can do
as a grateful Nation.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mrs. Maloney follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY
Chairmen Nadler and Cohen, Ranking Members Collins and
Johnson, I want to thank you for inviting me to testify today
on H.R. 1327, the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent
Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
Act, which I introduced with Chairman Nadler, Congressman King,
and 90 of our colleagues. Today, we are proud to have a
strongly bipartisan bill, with 306 cosponsors, 79 of them
Republicans. I am grateful that the Committee recognizes the
importance of supporting 9/11 first responders, survivors, and
their families and the urgency of passing this bill as soon as
possible.
On September 11, 2001, our Nation was horrifically
attacked. Nearly 3,000--exactly 2,997 innocent people were
brutally murdered and thousands more were injured in New York
City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon simply for
being American or being on American soil.
Yet, it still gets worse.
The death toll from that terrible day continues to grow. In
the years since 9/11, tens of thousands more men and women,
including first responders, relief workers, and local
residents, have lost their lives or gotten sick as a result of
their exposure to toxic chemicals, pulverized drywall, and
powdered cement at the crash sites even though we, the U.S.
Government, told them it was safe to be at the sites, to go
back to work, to go to school.
Soon, deaths from 9/11 diseases may outnumber those lost on
that fateful day.
9/11 was an attack on America and in response, our Nation
committed to finding those responsible, and holding them
accountable.
The first veterans of the War on Terror were the first
responders, the volunteers and the survivors of 9/11.
Today they live all over the country--in 433 out of 435
congressional districts. There are firefighters, police
officers, construction workers, electrical workers, and
volunteers from every State who answered the call and traveled
to DC, Pennsylvania and NY to help with the recovery.
There are those who lived, worked, and went to school near
Ground Zero who are now trying to build lives all across the
country.
We have a moral obligation to provide support and
compensation to these heroes and their families. Not only did
they come to our aid when we needed them, but many are sick
because they trusted the Federal Government when it said the
air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe.
In October 2011, after a 9-year fight, the James Zadroga 9/
11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 was signed into law,
establishing the World Trade Center Health Program and
reopening and revising the September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund. These programs provide health monitoring and financial
compensation to first responders, survivors, and their
families.
In 2015, I am proud to say that Congress permanently
reauthorized the health program, but the Victim Compensation
Fund will expire next year if don't Act because it was only
given a 5-year extension.
Making matters worse, the Special Master of the Fund
announced in February that the fund would not make it to 2020
because of a funding shortfall, partly due to an increase in
cancer claims. In order to extend its life, the VCF was forced
to cut all pending awards by 50 to 70 percent.
This is devastating for first responders, survivors, and
their families who depend on this compensation.
For the last three and a half months, they have not been
getting the help they deserve, the help our Nation owes them.
Since February 25, 2019, more than 830 compensation
recipients have received reduced awards from the Victim
Compensation Fund because of a funding shortfall.
This is unacceptable, and we must Act now to correct this.
They shouldn't have to worry about the program running out
of funding or need tocome back to Congress every five years to
beg for program reauthorization. That kind of uncertainty is
unfair and unsustainable.
Our legislation would make these families whole by
requiring the Special Master to revisit these reduced claims
and pay out the difference. And it would permanently
reauthorize the fund. The respiratory problems, cancers and
other illnesses they face are permanent, and this program
should be as well.
As evidence by the more than 300 cosponsors of the Never
Forget the Heroes Act, this isn't a Democratic or Republican
issue or a New York and New Jersey issue--here are Americans of
all political persuasions in every corner of our country who
are counting on us. Our whole country owes them a debt, a debt
that we can never fully repay.
Allowing this fund to expire, or run out of the funding it
needs, sets a dangerous precedent. If, god forbid, our Nation
ever suffers an attack like this again, first responders must
know that the Nation will support them and their families.
Look at who is sitting here with us today--these heroes are
the reason we fight and I want to conclude by recognizing all
the first responders, survivors, and family Members of victims
who have spent countless hours advocating for this bill and the
VCF.
You'll hear from a few of them during this hearing. We
would never have been able to garner the support of our
colleagues without their tireless dedication and hard work.
They continue to be my inspiration every single day since
the fight for their healthcare and financial security began.
As much as I love my time with them, we would all rather
they never have to come to DC or Congress again.
After 9/11, we vowed to never forget. With that promise, we
committed to making sure these heroes never have to go without
the support they need. I will tell this Committee what I've
told many people before--I will not rest, the other people
testifying before you today will not rest, until we have fully
honored this commitment.
This is the very least we can do, as a grateful nation.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
Let me also note the presence here of another long-time and
key supporter of the 9/11--of the Zadroga Act and their
subsequent bills, Congressman Eliot Engel of New York.
Representative King, you may begin now.
TESTIMONY OF HON. PETER KING
Mr. King. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I issued my statement
for the record.
I would just like to make a few remarks here on this vital,
vital bill. I want to thank you. I want to thank your Ranking
Member, Congressman Collins, Ranking Member Mr. Johnson, and
also Steve Cohen. This is such a vital bill. It has a human
aspect to it. I want to also just mention all of the FDNY,
NYPD, Port Authority cops, EMS workers, court officers,
construction workers, residents--your residents, Jerry--
students, all of whom have suffered over the years.
We went through 6 months of wakes and funerals after 9/11,
and we thought that was it. Now the last few years, those wakes
and funerals have started again. Just last week in East Meadow,
about 10 minutes from my home, a Port Authority lieutenant died
from 9/11 illness. So, this is something that goes on and on
and on. And soon we will have more dying after 9/11 than
actually died on 9/11. That shows how vital this is.
This is not a New York issue. It is not a New Jersey issue.
It is definitely a national issue. I want to also take the time
to thank the special master. I want to reemphasize what you had
said. This program has been run exceptionally well. The fact
that it is running out of funds is no reflection at all on the
Administration of the program. Rather, it is a reflection of
how deadly these illnesses are and how long they were dormant
and latent and how deadly they are and how vicious they are.
All of us knows a friend, a neighbor, a constituent,
friends of neighbors of constituents who are suffering or have
died. People who are going back every 3 or 4 months for medical
tests, taking 20, 30 medications a day, constantly going back
in for biopsies. This is a real national tragedy, which did not
end at all on September 11 or September 12.
Just the other day I got a call from a local radio reporter
who was just diagnosed several months ago and just finished his
chemotherapy. He was down there for weeks and months afterwards
reporting, again, as to what had happened there, what was going
on.
As brave as those men and women were who rushed in on
September 11--and nobody can ever, ever question or even think
of excelling the bravery they showed--but you said, Jerry, that
too often we forget what went on those weeks and months
afterwards when people were down there inhaling those toxic
fumes involved in the recovery, involved in--doing what they
could to find the remains of their loved ones. So, again, we
owe it to all of them.
Let me give a special thanks to Jon Stewart. There is
probably not that many issues that Jon Stewart and I would be
agreeing on, but I have never seen anyone put himself into a
cause more than this. Not just going on television. That is
easy for him. What is tough is doing the grunt work of going
door to door talking to Members of Congress. He has more
patience than I would have in talking to some Members of
Congress. He just goes in there. He just will talk and explain,
tell you why this is a human issue, why it is not a Republican
or Democrat issues. Again, he just does an excellent job. I
really want to thank him. I don't think we would have been
where we were back in 2015 or we would have been where we are
now if it were not for Jon's efforts.
So, Jon, I want to thank you for that.
Also, I want to thank Lee Zeldin, Eliot Engel. Eliot has
been there from the start. Lee has been there since--ever since
he came to Congress. And he realizes the true impact of this.
Again, Ranking Member Johnson, I know you mentioned the
issue of costs, and that has been to be addressed. On the other
hand, we have to find a way to get it done. I am not saying it
is simple, but in many ways, it is. We have an obligation to
get this done. These are real people who are dying, and we have
an obligation to them and to their families because they are
there, not through any fault of theirs but because of their
courage, because their bravery, because they--and Congressman
Nadler, some of the residents just lived in the wrong place at
the wrong time. They were told it was safe to continue living
there. Students in Stuyvesant High School. These are innocent
victims. They are the first innocent victims of the first great
war of the 21st century and we owe it to them. Also, we owe it
to future generations. If something like this should, God
forbid, happen in the future, we want people those people who
are rushing into the buildings, those people who are taking
care of the recovery, that they know, that they are assured
that they will receive the compensation from the government
that they deserve.
So, again, I am proud to be here today. I can't emphasize
enough how vital this legislation is. Also to thank the men and
women behind us who--you know, they are the ones who are
suffering. Carolyn, you and I, we can talk about it. We can
sort of argue on the floor of Congress about it. But that is
nothing compared to what they are going through every day of
their lives.
So, with that, I thank you for holding this hearing. I
thank the Members for their attention. I thank the witnesses
who are coming after us. I just say that September 11 showed
the true bravery of the American people. The weeks and months
after that showed the resilience and bravery of the American
people. Also, I think if we can get this job done, it will show
that Congress understands and respects and will always honor
those who put their lives on the line for their country.
With that, I yield back.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Mr. King follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF REP. PETER T. KING
Thank you Chairman Nadler and Ranking Member Collins for
holding today's hearing on the need to reauthorize the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. It is a pleasure to
appear today with Congresswoman Maloney and before Chairman
Nadler, both of whom I have worked closely on this critical
issue. I would also like to thank Ranking Member Collins for
his support of this bill, as well as the more than 300 Members
of the House--from both parties--who are cosponsors of this
legislation.
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) was
created in the aftermath of the horrific attacks on the World
Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. Congress has
since reopened and reauthorized it to provide for sick and
injured first responders, survivors, and the families of those
who have died from illnesses due to exposure to toxins during
the rescue, recovery and cleanup operations at the crash sites.
This program has been a lifeline for my constituents, and
for first responders and survivors in nearly every
Congressional district. To date, the VCF has received over
48,000 eligibility claims from all fifty states and has made
over 28,000 determinations since being reopened. The program
has strong bipartisan backing and has been run effectively by
the Bush, Obama and Trump Administrations. The application
process is extremely rigorous and carefully monitored to
prevent fraud.
H.R. 847, the Never Forget the Heroes Act, would achieve
two critical objectives in support of the September 11th VCF:
Extend it to 2090, which would effectively make it permanent,
and backfill awards that have been reduced due to insufficient
funding.
Each day, more and more first responders and survivors are
getting sick and dying from their 9/11-related diseases, like
cancer, respiratory illnesses and other chronic conditions. We
already know from the 9/11 health programs that these illnesses
have long latency periods and can decades to manifest. If the
VCF is not extended past 2020, these men and women will lose
the ability to seek compensation for these deadly conditions.
While Congress has previously extended this program for
five years at a time, we must now make the VCF permanent and
fully fund it. Cops, firefighters, recovery workers and
survivors need to know that this program will provide for them
and their families if and when they get sick. Again, cancers
and chronic conditions linked to 9/11 toxins can take years to
show up. They need certainty.
As it stands, the VCF has been forced to implement drastic
cuts to awards due to insufficient funding. When the Fund was
last reauthorized, it was based on the best available data.
However, due to a surge in cancer claims and deaths, current
funding is inadequate. Claimants are having their awards
slashed by 50-70% before offsets are even deducted. Since the
cuts were announced in February, 835 awards have already been
reduced. This is a devastating blow to the 9/11 community.
Congress should immediately pass H.R. 847 to reverse these cuts
and make claimants whole.
Very soon, more people will have died from 9/11-related
illnesses than were murdered on that day. The number of local,
State and federal law enforcement officers who have died of 9/
11 illnesses is already more than double that of those who died
on September 11th. We must fulfill our promise to them to
``never forget.''
Once again, I thank Chairman Nadler and Ranking Member
Collins for holding today's hearing. I look forward to working
with you both to pass H.R. 847.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Representative King.
I obviously share those sentiments. I want to also note the
presence of several the advocates who have fought so long for
this legislation. John Field has been one of the leaders of
them.
We will now hear from our second panel of witnesses. While
they are getting seated, I will do the introductions. Rupa
Bhattacharyya is the special master for the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund. She was appointed to that position by
the Attorney General in July 2016. During her tenure as special
master, she has overseen the award of over $3.3 billion to more
than 13,000 eligible claimants. She first joined the Department
of Justice in 1996 through the Attorney General honors program
as a trial attorney in the civil division and has spent most of
her career there eventually rising to director of the torts
branch prior to her appointment as special master. She received
her J.D. from Harvard Law School, a master's degree in
international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University, and her bachelor's degree from
Tulane University.
Dr. Jacqueline Moline is professor of occupational
medicine, epidemiology, and prevention, and internal medicine
at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/
Northwell. She is also the adjunct clinical associate professor
of preventive medicine in Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In
addition, she serves as a member of the World Trade Center
Health Program steering committee. She received her M.D. from
the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, her
Master of Science degree in community medicine from Mount Sinai
School of Medicine, and the B.A. from the University of
Chicago.
Lila Nordstrom is a 9/11 survivor and was a Stuyvesant High
School student on September 11, 2001. She currently serves as
executive director of StuyHealth, a position she has held since
May 2006. In that role, she creates and coordinates efforts to
educate young adults about health services available to 9/11
survivors. Today, however, she is testifying in her personal
capacity. She has also worked as a freelance writer and
columnist. She received her B.A. with honors from Vassar
College.
Anesta St. Rose Henry is the widow of a construction worker
and 9/11 World Trade Center responder Candidus Henry, who was a
member of the Laborers International Union of North America
Local 79. Mr. Henry was working for a contractor at Ground Zero
from February 2002 to June 2002. He died last month from a 9/11
related cancer.
Thomas Mohnal retired as a supervisory special agent after
a 30-year career with the Federal Bureau of Investigations. On
September 11, 2001, Mr. Mohnal witnessed American Airlines
Flight 77 crash and explode into the Pentagon. He immediately
responded to the crash site and continued working at the
Pentagon for the next 2 months. As a result of this work, he
incurred a serious illness. He received his bachelor's degree
in criminal justice from Lycoming College.
Michael O'Connell retired as a lieutenant with the fire
department of city of New York in 2009. From September 11
through September 18, 2001, he performed rescue and recovery
work at the World Trade Center site. He was awarded the 9/11
survivor medal by the FDNY. He joined the FDNY in 1998 and
later joined the FDNY--I am sorry. He joined the NYPD, the
police department, in 1998, and later joined the fire
department in 2001. As with several of our other witnesses, Mr.
O'Connell incurred a serious illness as a result of his rescue
and recovery work. He studied nursing at Molloy College and
Nassau Community College.
Luis Alvarez is a retired bomb squad detective with the New
York Police Department. He was a responder at the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001. Today, he suffers from 9/11-
related liver cancer that has metastasized throughout most of
his body, and he is about to have a 69th round of chemotherapy.
Prior to joining the NYPD, he served in the United States
Marine Corps. After retiring from the NYPD, Luis became an
explosive ordnance disposal technician with the Transportation
Security Administration at John F. Kennedy International
Airport.
Jon Stewart is the former host of ``The Daily Show'' on
Comedy Central. Of most relevance to today's hearing, he has
been an outspoken advocate for 9/11 responders and survivors
and for both the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and
the World Trade Center Health Program. He has been a tireless
advocate in raising awareness about the treatment of 9/11
responders and survivors. To this end, he invited several of
them onto the Daily Show, made numerous trips to Capitol Hill
to advocate on their behalf. He is a graduate of the College of
William and Mary.
We welcome our distinguished witnesses, and we thank you
all for participating in today's hearing.
Now, if you would please rise and raise your right hand, I
will begin by swearing you in.
Do you swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the
testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best
of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help you God?
The witnesses may be seated.
Let the record show the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
Please note that your written statements will be entered
into the record in their entirety. Accordingly, I ask that you
summarize your testimony in 5 minutes. To help you stay within
that time, there is a timing light on your table. When the
light switches from green to yellow, you have 1 minute to
conclude your testimony. When the light turns red, it signals
your 5 minutes have expired.
Ms. Bhattacharyya, you may begin.
TESTIMONY OF RUPA BHATTACHARYYA
Ms. Bhattacharyya. Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins,
Chairman Cohen, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished
Members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to
testify about the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, or
the VCF.
Hearings like this remind us that September 11, 2001,
marked only the beginning of an ongoing and evolving tragedy.
To those of you who share the table with me who were there, who
responded to the attacks, or would not allow terrorism to
prevent you from returning to your schools, homes, or
workplaces, thank you for your heroism and your sacrifice.
I have spent my career in public service, including more
than 20 years at the Justice Department. Since the Attorney
General appointed me as special master in 2016, I have been
humbled by the responsibility of serving the strong and
resilient 9/11 community.
I was privileged recently to attend the dedication of the
Memorial Glade at the 9/11 museum in New York. I was reminded
of the startling fact that the nearly 3,000 lives lost on
September 11 may soon be overtaken by the number of lives lost
in the years afterwards to illnesses that stem from exposure to
toxins at all three attack sites.
While no amount of money can fully compensate for such
losses, I am proud that the VCF has been able to provide some
needed relief to those who have suffered for so long.
The VCF is an extraordinarily successful program. As of May
31, we have awarded almost $5.2 billion to nearly 22,500
individuals who suffer physical health conditions, including to
the families of more than 850 who have died as a result of
their exposure in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in
Shanksville. Those compensated include first responders,
workers or volunteers in construction, cleanup and debris
removal, and people who lived, worked, or went to school in the
affected areas. The VCF has received claims from individuals in
every State of the Nation, including those who came in from
around the country as part of the response efforts and those
who have relocated in the years since the attacks.
In my 3 years at the VCF, we have significantly improved
efficiency and claim determination rates. The VCF now issues
nearly as many awards each year as it did in total in its first
5 years. And the VCF under my leadership has not documented a
single instance of fraud in a paid claim. We work diligently
with the Department's Office of the Inspector General to ensure
that any indicia of fraud are investigated and reconciled.
Despite its successes, however, the VCF faces a difficult
situation. We received a record number of new claims in 2018,
and we are on pace to exceed that number in 2019. The issue is
basic math. Almost $5.2 billion awarded to nearly 22,500
individuals, just over $2 billion left with over 21,000 claims
and amendments still needing a decision and thousands more
expected to be filed before the VCF's December 18, 2020,
deadline.
Several trends help us understand how we got here. Since
reauthorization of the Zadroga Act in December of 2015, we have
seen a dramatic increase in claims filed on behalf of those who
have died as a result of their 9/11-related exposure, a
significant increase in cancer claims, and a marked increase in
claims from survivors, meaning those who lived, worked, or went
to school in the affected areas.
Taking account of these trends and the increasing rates of
both claim submissions and award determinations, in February, I
determined that the VCF had insufficient funding to compensate
all pending claims and those projected to be filed under then
existing policies. With that determination, I was required by
law to modify VCF policies and procedures so that the VCF does
not exceed its appropriated limit. This meant making
significant reductions in awards.
In deciding how to do this, I felt strongly that I could
not leave some claimants uncompensated or fail to make
allowance for those who suffered the most. I concluded that the
fairest solution was to apply a percentage reduction to all
claims. Thus, depending on when the claim was submitted,
calculated loss values are being reduced by either 50 or 70
percent with required offsets taken in full.
I wish to thank the Judiciary Committee and the Members of
this Subcommittee for giving me the opportunity to speak to you
about this successful and important program. Along with my
dedicated staff and with the full support of the Justice
Department, I remain strongly committed to serving the 9/11
community. We remain hopeful that our work continues to provide
needed relief, and we stand ready, along with the Justice
Department, to work with you to ensure that Congress has the
information it needs to address appropriate legislative
options.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Bhattacharyya follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF RUPA BHATTACHARYYA
Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, Chairman Cohen and
Ranking Member Johnson and distinguished Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you
today on behalf of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
(the VCF or the Fund). I am very appreciative of the
Committee's interest in the important work of the VCF and
grateful for its attention to the needs of the 9/11 community,
which includes the responders and survivors of that terrible
day and of the weeks and months of rescue, recovery, and
remediation efforts that followed. We all know that the world
changed forever on September 11, 2001, but the work that I am
privileged to do every day--and hearings like this one--remind
us all that the events of September 11 marked only the
beginning of an ongoing and evolving tragedy. I know that some
of those who were there, who responded to the sites of the
attacks, or were just living their lives only to be caught up
in events beyond their control, are in the room, and I join the
Members of the Committee in commending them for their heroism
and their sacrifice. I have spent my career in public service,
including more than 20 years at the Justice Department, but
since the Attorney General appointed me to serve as Special
Master for the VCF in 2016, I have been humbled by the
responsibility of serving this strong and resilient community.
I was privileged recently to attend the dedication of the
Memorial Glade at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City
and I was reminded again of the startling fact that the nearly
3,000 lives lost on September 11 may soon be overtaken by the
number of lives lost in the years afterwards to the illnesses
that stemmed from exposure to toxins at the three sites. While
no amount of money can fully compensate for the losses that
were suffered as a result of that day, I am proud that the VCF
has been able to provide at least some measure of needed relief
to those who have sacrificed so much and suffered for so long.
Background
By way of brief background, the VCF was originally created
in 2001, immediately following the attacks, by Public Law No.
107-42 (Sept. 22, 2001), as amended by Public Law No. 107-71
(Nov. 19, 2001), as an alternative to tort litigation, and was
designed to provide compensation for any individual (or a
personal representative of a deceased individual) who suffered
physical harm or was killed as a result of the terrorist-
related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001, or the clean-up
and debris removal efforts that took place in the immediate
aftermath of those crashes. The original VCF (known as ``VCF
I'') operated from 2001-2004 under the direction of Special
Master Kenneth Feinberg, and distributed over $7 billion. VCF I
concluded operations in June 2004, after compensating the
families of over 2,880 people who died on 9/11 and 2,680
individuals who were injured.
In 2011, Congress passed and the President signed the James
Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (``Zadroga
Act''), Public Law No. 111-347 (Jan. 2, 2011), which
reactivated the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (known
as ``VCF II''), expanded its pool of eligible claimants, and
appropriated $2.775 billion to pay claims. VCF II opened in
October 2011 and was originally authorized to accept claims for
a period of five years, ending in October 2016. Prior to
reaching the October 2016 claim filing deadline, however, in
December 2015, Congress passed and the President signed the
James Zadroga 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Reauthorization
Act, Public Law No. 114-113 (Dec. 18, 2015). The new Act
extended the VCF for an additional five years, allowing
individuals to submit claims until December 18, 2020, and
appropriated an additional $4.6 billion to pay claims, bringing
the total appropriated amount for VCF II to $7.375 billion.
VCF Progress and Operations
The VCF, as reconstituted under the Zadroga Act, as
amended, is an extraordinarily successful program. As of May
31, 2019, the VCF has awarded over $5.174 billion in
compensation to nearly 22,500 individuals who have suffered
physical health conditions (including the families of over 850
people who have died), as a result of their exposure to the
terrorist attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in
Shanksville. Those compensated include first responders; people
who worked or volunteered in rescue, recovery, clean-up,
construction, or debris removal at the three sites; as well as
people who lived, worked, or went to school in the affected
areas of New York City and were exposed to toxins resulting
from the attacks, the airline crashes, and the building
collapses. The VCF has received claims from individuals in
every State of the nation.
This includes those who traveled to New York City, the
Pentagon, and Shanksville from all over the country as part of
the response efforts, both in official capacities and as
volunteers, and those who have relocated elsewhere in the
intervening years since the attacks. In the three years since
my appointment, moreover, the VCF has made significant strides
in improving its efficiency and its claim determination rates:
whereas the VCF issued just over 9,000 awards in the first five
years of the program, the VCF now issues nearly 8,000
determinations on new claims and amendments annually.
The VCF operates with a dedicated team of 173 Justice
Department employees and contractors, headed by Deputy Special
Master Jordy Feldman, who serves as the Director of our New
York Office, and Deputy Special Master Stefanie Langsam, who
oversees all operations in the D.C. office. The staff includes
attorneys and support personnel who process, evaluate, and/or
adjudicate claims; contractors who are responsible for VCF
operations, including our toll-free Helpline, correspondence,
and payment processing; and information technology specialists
who are responsible for designing, developing, testing, and
maintaining the VCF's claims management system, which allows
for the filing of online claims. The VCF also has the strong
support of the Department of Justice, and specifically, of the
Department's Civil Division, which provides operational and
administrative support to the VCF, and I wish to thank the
Attorney General, Civil Division Assistant Attorney General
Jody Hunt, Civil Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tom
Ward, and the Civil Division's Executive Officer Catherine
Emerson for their strong and unwavering support of the VCF.
The scale of the VCF's operations is impressive. Each
month, the VCF's dedicated Helpline receives more than 3,000
incoming calls, we mail approximately 10,000 letters to
claimants and their attorneys, we process an average of 3,000
pieces of incoming mail, and, on average, we receive nearly 700
new claims or amendments. It is important to note, when
discussing VCF operations, that all of the VCF's administrative
funding comes from the VCF's total appropriation, Public Law
No. 112-10 (Apr. 15, 2011), and, as such, is part of the same
pool of funds available for awards to claimants. For that
reason, as Special Master, I am committed to keeping
administrative costs down while also minimizing the burden
placed on claimants and their representatives, and maximizing
claims processing speed and efficiency. As of December 31,
2018, the VCF's administrative costs are less than 3% of total
awards issued.
VCF Claims Process
The VCF reviews claims in two phases: Eligibility and
compensation.
LFor eligibility, the VCF reviews the claim to
determine whether the claimant is eligible to receive
compensation under the Zadroga Act, including assessing
whether: The claim was timely registered; the claimant has
sufficiently proven that he or she was present at one of the
attack sites or in the New York City Exposure Zone (Manhattan,
south of Canal Street); the claimant suffers from an eligible
physical injury or condition as certified or verified by the
World Trade Center Health Program; and the claimant has
properly complied with the Act's requirements that any 9/11-
related lawsuit be properly settled or dismissed in order to
qualify for compensation from the VCF.
LFor compensation, all awards are individually
calculated based on the specific circumstances of the claim.
The VCF reviews eligible claims to determine the appropriate
amount of non-economic loss (commonly referred to as ``pain and
suffering'') based on the nature or severity of the
individual's physical injury or condition. Non-economic loss
awards are capped by statute at $90,000 for non-cancer
conditions and $250,000 for a cancer condition. If a government
entity or private insurer has formally determined that the
claimant suffers a full or partial occupational disability as a
result of an eligible 9/11-related physical injury or
condition, the VCF generally also will calculate economic loss.
This portion of the award can encompass a variety of
components, including loss of income as well as loss of pension
and other employment benefits; the VCF is required by law to
cap annual gross income at $200,000 when calculating economic
loss. The VCF also awards, in limited and appropriate cases,
reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical expenses, replacement
services losses, and reimbursement for burial costs in deceased
claims.
The VCF is required by law to subtract from the calculated
award certain ``collateral offsets,'' which are benefits paid
to the claimant by other entities because of the eligible 9/11-
related condition. These offsets may include disability
benefits, settlements from 9/11-related lawsuits, and in the
case of deceased claims, life insurance paid to the victim's
beneficiaries.
The VCF reviews claims in first-in, first-out priority
order, which is established by the date on which the claim or
amendment for compensation was submitted. Claim determinations
are highly individualized and, on average, it takes about 16-18
months for a claim to go from filing to determination, although
some claims can be done sooner and some take longer, depending
on the complexity of the claim and the extent of documentation
required. The VCF is currently reviewing compensation claims
and amendments submitted in mid-to-late 2017, and claims
submitted in the early part of 2018 are expected to come under
review soon. In addition, the VCF has an established process
for expediting claims in cases involving terminal illness or
significant financial hardship and is steadfast in ensuring
that the criteria used to determine eligibility for this
process are rigorously applied so that only those claimants
with the most severe needs are allowed to jump the line. So far
in 2019, the VCF has expedited 183 claims, which can move from
filing to payment in as little as three weeks, and I wish to
express our gratitude to the Department's Justice Management
Division and the United States Department of the Treasury,
which work closely with us to make sure that expedited payments
are made as soon as possible. The circumstances that warrant
expedition are truly saddening, and yet we are gratified to be
able to issue these payments quickly and provide some sense of
solace and financial security to claimants facing their darkest
days.
In making eligibility and compensation determinations, the
VCF works closely with our sister program under the Zadroga
Act, the World Trade Center Health Program, operated by the
Department of Health and Human Services' National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, under the stellar leadership of
Dr. John Howard, which provides medical monitoring and
treatment for those affected by 9/11. The VCF also has
established beneficial relationships and direct data exchanges
with multiple federal and State entities, each of which
provides information used by the VCF in assessing claims. These
include the Social Security Administration, the Department of
Veterans Affairs, the Department of Labor, the Office of
Personnel Management, and the Department's own Office of
Justice Programs' Public Safety Officers' Benefit Program, as
well as the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, the
Fire Department of New York, the New York Police Department,
the New York City Employees' Retirement System, and various
other New York city and State pension boards and unions.
By statute, claimants are limited to filing only one claim
with the VCF, but VCF policy allows claims to be amended at any
time before the program closes in 2020 if the claimant suffers
a new injury or incurs a new and previously uncompensated loss.
Claimants are also allowed to appeal in the case of an
eligibility denial, or if the individual believes the award
calculation did not properly account for the individual
circumstances in the claim. Hearings are non-adversarial and
provide an opportunity for claimants to tell us their story,
and we have a dedicated staff of pro bono hearing officers (who
operate under a special appointment from the Attorney General)
who generously lend their expertise and gravitas to the VCF's
administrative appeals process; in 2018, the VCF held 380
appeal hearings; so far in 2019, we have held 299. The law
provides that the ultimate decisions of the Special Master on
eligibility and compensation are final and unreviewable by any
judicial authority, which is an extraordinary grant of
discretion that I take extremely seriously.
The VCF also takes very seriously its role in ensuring that
public funding is allocated only to those individuals who are
suffering as a result of 9/11, and has a robust system of
standards and procedures in place to prevent fraud. All claim
form responses and information submitted to support a claim are
subject to 18 U.S.C. 1001, the statute that criminalizes false
statements made to the Federal Government. Moreover, key
information used to establish eligibility and to calculate loss
is independently verified with various third parties. Multiple
internal checks take place throughout the claim review process
to ensure that factual inconsistencies, data discrepancies, and
other potential indicators of fraud are identified and
resolved. In addition, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI or Bureau) provides a
background check for every individual who is receiving a VCF
payment, and the VCF receives dedicated assistance when needed
through a strong partnership with the Department's Office of
the Inspector General. The VCF also undergoes regular
independent government audits and an annual financial audit. We
are very proud of the fact that the VCF under the Zadroga Act
has not documented any instance of fraud in a paid claim.
Current Status of the VCF
Under the Zadroga Act, as amended, the VCF is required to
close to new claims and amendments on December 18, 2020. At the
beginning of 2019, VCF projections showed that the $7.375
billion in total funding was expected to be insufficient to pay
all claims already pending and claims expected to be filed. The
law passed by Congress when it reauthorized the VCF in 2015
recognized the possibility that funding might be insufficient
and required the Special Master to annually reassess the VCF's
policies and procedures to ensure that (1) funding is
prioritized for those individuals who suffer from the most
debilitating physical conditions; and (2) funds are not
obligated in excess of the $7.375 billion appropriation. Under
the law, if, as a result of this annual reassessment, I
determine that those requirements cannot be met, I am required
to take actions or make modifications to VCF policies and
procedures as necessary to achieve these statutory
requirements. Thus, once I made the determination that funding
was insufficient in February 2019, I did as the law required
and modified VCF policies and procedures to reduce VCF award
values for all pending and potential claimants to ensure that
the VCF would stay within the appropriated limits while still
continuing to prioritize the claims from the claimants with the
most debilitating conditions. I would like to use the remainder
of my time to explain how we got here and why I made the
decision that I did.
The VCF was authorized with a limited amount of funding
but, while the population of potential claimants is a finite
set, its exact numbers are unknown. There is no accurate count
of how many people might have been exposed to toxins stemming
from the attacks, and there is considerable uncertainty about
the number of individuals who ultimately will fall ill due to
the long latency periods that can elapse before manifestation
of the cancers determined to be related to 9/11 exposure. The
VCF also has suffered from an information gap; in the early
years of the program, many eligible individuals were not aware
that the VCF was an available resource, assuming it was meant
only for New York City first responders. In fact, even the FBI,
which has lost at least 16 employees to 9/11-related illnesses,
did not recognize until fairly recently that its employees
might be eligible for VCF compensation. The efforts of Director
Christopher Wray and his staff have been instrumental in
ensuring that the Bureau and other federal law enforcement
agencies are made aware of the programs that are available to
help them.
As a result of increasing outreach, not only within the
Federal Government but by victims' advocacy groups, many of
which are represented here today, by the World Trade Center
Health Program, and by the lawyers who represent over 80
percent of VCF claimants, but also as a harbinger of the
increasing seriousness of 9/11-related illnesses, the VCF
received a record number of new claims in 2018 and is on pace
to exceed that number in 2019. For perspective, in the first
five years of the Fund, through December 31, 2016, roughly
19,000 compensation forms were filed. In the two years after
that, through December 2018, almost 20,000 additional
compensation forms were filed, with an additional 7,700
compensation forms filed so far in 2019 (see Chart A). We have
awarded $5.174 billion to nearly 22,500 individuals, some more
than once due to an amendment or an appeal. Keeping in mind
that we must maintain a funding reserve for administrative
costs, we have just over $2 billion left, with over 21,000
claims and amendments still needing a decision. While some
number of those pending claims will be denied, and some number
of amendments will not warrant any change to the original
award, it is still clear that the VCF projects a shortfall.
Consistent with the reassessment mandate in the statute,
each of the VCF's Annual Reports published since
reauthorization in December 2015 has addressed the possibility
of a funding shortfall. In the first reassessment conducted
following Reauthorization, published March 13, 2017, as part of
the VCF's Fifth Annual Report, the VCF projected that funding
would be sufficient based on the data available at the time. We
recognized, however, that there was considerable uncertainty in
those projections and that the reauthorization of the VCF, with
its new claim filing deadline and additional funding, provided
opportunities for more people to benefit from the funding
allocated to this important program. In the second
reassessment, published with our Sixth Annual Report in
February 2018, we projected that the VCF would remain just
barely within its funding limit, projecting a total expenditure
of $7.295 billion out of the appropriated $7.375 billion.
Noting the relatively thin margin that existed, we indicated at
that time that we would continue to monitor our projections
over the course of the year to determine if changes would be
needed prior to the following year's annual reassessment. In
October 2018, following the anniversary of the September 11th
attacks, and after internal projections done with August 2018
data suggested that the VCF, at the existing compensation
levels, would exceed the available appropriated amount, the VCF
published a Notice of Inquiry in the Federal Register, alerting
the public of the possibility of a funding shortfall and
seeking public comment on how to distribute the remaining funds
in the most fair and equitable manner.
As we evaluated the comments received in response to the
Notice and prepared the reassessment at the end of 2018, we
were able to pinpoint several new trends, which reflect
significant changes to the composition of the VCF's claimant
population since Congress last examined this law in 2015, in
terms of the types of claims filed, the types of conditions
claimed, and the types of claimants filing claims. Since the
Reauthorization of the VCF in December 2015, we have seen:
LA dramatic increase in deceased claim filings,
meaning claims filed on behalf of those who have died as a
result of their 9/11-related physical health condition. At the
end of 2015, the VCF had received 610 deceased claims. As of
May 31, 2019, we have received 2,252 (see Chart B), with more
than a quarter of that total (676) filed year-to-date in 2019.
LA marked increase in cancer claims. In 2015, the
Congressional Budget Office estimated that, should the VCF
remain in operation through 2025, we would issue awards on a
total of between 2,500 and 10,000 cancer claims. We have
already found over 8,800 cancer claimants eligible, and already
awarded compensation to 7,750 of these individuals (see Chart
C). And we are a full six years away from 2025.
LA marked increase in claims from the survivor
population, meaning those who lived, worked, or went to school
in the area. At the time of Reauthorization in December 2015,
not quite 14% of all VCF awards were paid to survivors. Today,
just about 38% of claims filed are from this population (see
Chart D).
When you take these trends, factor in that deceased claims
and cancer claims tend to be higher value awards, and also
consider the fact that we have made significant improvements to
our processes which have significantly increased the rate at
which awards are issued, the plain fact is that we are
expending the available funds more quickly than assumed, and
there are many more claims than anticipated.
Using data as of January 31, 2019, and in consideration of
these trends, I determined in the third reassessment required
by the law, published with our Seventh Annual Report in
February 2019, that the VCF had insufficient funding to
continue to compensate all pending claims and claims projected
to be filed by December 18, 2020, under the VCF's then-existing
policies and procedures. As described in that report, available
at www.vcf.gov, the VCF projected, using a trend-based
analysis, that, after considering all awards made through
January 31, 2019, we would expect to make a total of 28,185
additional original and revised awards, which would mean that,
based on average award values, the VCF's total expenditures at
program end (including necessary administrative costs) would
require a total cumulative outlay of $11.991 billion, $4.616
billion more than the $7.375 currently appropriated. Given my
determination of insufficient funding, the law required me to
modify VCF policies and procedures so as to ensure that the VCF
does not obligate funds beyond its appropriation. This meant
that the VCF needed to make significant reductions in awards.
In choosing how to go about this task, I attempted not only
to adhere to the VCF's two statutory directives--not exceeding
the available appropriation, and prioritizing funding for
claimants with the most debilitating conditions--but also to
meet three central policy goals: (1) Ensuring that all eligible
claimants filing before the statutory deadline, December 18,
2020, would receive some compensation for their suffering
(subject to applicable statutory offsets); (2) holding a
reasonable amount of money in contingent reserve to ensure
against further unanticipated increases in claim filings, and
to be able to make increased awards in appropriate cases where
claimants are suffering from extraordinarily severe conditions;
and (3) minimizing operational and administrative
implementation challenges to avoid a delay or outright halt in
claim determinations.
After thoroughly evaluating every potential available
option, I agreed with the clear majority of the commenters who
responded to the VCF's published Notice of Inquiry and
concluded that the fairest way to implement the required
reduction of awards was to do so across the board, applying a
percentage reduction to all awards. Other approaches would have
had the effect of disproportionately affecting the claimants
with the most debilitating conditions, which I believed to be
inconsistent with the VCF's statutory mandate. Reducing the
highest value awards, for example, or making changes to the way
in which economic losses are calculated, would most affect
those claimants whose 9/11-related physical health conditions
are so severe that they are no longer able to work. Continuing
to make VCF awards without any changes until the funding ran
out would have meant that claimants with the most severe
conditions whose claims had not yet been filed would be left
entirely uncompensated. I could not abide a plan that would
leave some claimants uncompensated or that would fail to make
any allowance for the claimants who suffer the most.
Accordingly, all pending claims, regardless of when they
were filed, are subject to the new policies put in place
effective February 25, 2019, to address the insufficiency of
funds, although we were able to make some accommodation for
claimants whose claims were already pending as of February 1,
2019, as follows:
Effective for any award on which the VCF makes a
determination on or after February 25, 2019:
LIf the claim or amendment was submitted for
compensation review on or before February 1, 2019, the
calculated award will be reduced by 50 percent.
LIf the claim or amendment was submitted for
compensation review on or after February 2, 2019, the
calculated award will be reduced by 70 percent.
By law, we cannot reduce the offsets applied to the award
and so the offsets are subtracted in full from the calculated
reduced award.
The reductions in awards have now been fully implemented.
In the period between February 25, 2019, when the reductions
became effective, and May 31, 2019, we have issued 835 awards
that have been subject to reduction.
Conclusion
Taking action to reduce VCF awards to comply with the law
was a challenge that I worked to ensure was solved in an
equitable and transparent way, as I spend each and every day
immersed in the stories of the individuals who make up the 9/11
community. Along with my talented and dedicated staff, I remain
deeply committed to serving the needs of the 9/11 community,
which we know to be strong and resilient. We are hopeful that
the work that we do continues to provide some measure of needed
relief. And, most importantly, we are grateful to this
Committee and to Congress for re-examining the Zadroga Act and
considering how best the Nation as a whole might be able to
continue to help the Members of the 9/11 community.
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, thank you for the opportunity
to speak here today about this successful and extraordinarily
important program. To the extent that the Committee requires
further information regarding the evaluation of claims, the
unanticipated nature of the illnesses compensated by the VCF,
and the projected numbers of those who may be eligible for
compensation in the future, I, my staff, and the Department are
fully committed to working with you to ensure that Congress has
the information that it needs to address appropriate
legislative options. Thank you.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
Dr. Moline.
TESTIMONY OF JACQUELINE MOLINE, M.D.
Dr. Moline. Good morning Nadler, Chairman Cohen, Ranking
Member Johnson, and Members of the committee. I am honored to
be here this morning.
My name is Dr. Jacqueline Moline. I am the chairperson of
the Department of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and
Prevention at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra
University Northwell. And I am the director of the Northwell
Queens World Trade Center Health Program. My specialty,
occupational and environmental medicine, deals with the impact
of hazardous substances on the health of individuals.
On September 11, I, like every person in New York, watched
in shock and horror as our Nation was attacked. My colleagues
at Mount Sinai where I was then working knew of the potential
for health effects related to asbestos and other toxicants. We
knew there would be disease in the short term and the long
term. Our immediate concern was for those acute health effects,
the first wave.
My colleagues and I have written extensive about this--
extensively about this, and copies of some publications are
attached to my testimony.
At Mount Sinai, we began seeing patients that month.
Through the tremendous efforts of the New York congressional
delegation and organized labor, in April 2002, we were given 1
year of funding to begin medical surveillance programs for
rescue and recovery workers, construction workers, and
volunteers exposed at the pile.
At the beginning, we could only evaluate patients and tell
them their health conditions. We are not allowed to provide
treatment. This program was extended 1 year, and we continued
to partnership with SUNY Stony Brook, Queens College, New York
University, and Rutgers to see patients in locations convenient
for them. These surveillance programs continued, eventually
including treatment and evolved into the World Trade Center
Health Program authorized eventually by the James Zadroga Act
of 2010.
After reauthorization in 2016, we had 75 years of funding
for medical surveillance and care of World Trade Center related
disorders as well as dedicated research. As of March 31, 2019,
95,320 first responders and survivors, the resident
schoolchildren, and individuals who worked in Lower Manhattan
who returned to their businesses had been evaluated.
Yes, the towers were in New York City, and the Pentagon is
here in DC, but it was an attack on our Nation. Individuals
from all over the country participated in this rescue and
recovery effort. Over the past 18 years, some people who lived
in the Metro New York area have moved to retire to other parts
of the country. Due to these reasons, there is a national
component to the World Trade Center program. As of May 2019,
16,684 individuals are enrolled in the national program in
every State.
Downtown Manhattan, home to thousands of residents, was
blanketed in thick dust. School children, like Lila sitting
here, had been evacuated from their places of learning on
September 11. They returned to their schools, despite fires
that continued to rage and amid dust that persisted through May
2002. The survivors are also covered by the Zadroga Act, and
the number of survivors has increased by 327 percent in 8
years.
Medical conditions have persisted. That is the second wave.
For example, over 50 percent of firefighters who worked the
World Trade Center site had developed a persistent respiratory
condition. Rates of asthma remain elevated along with a variety
of other diseases.
Here we are nearly 20 years later. Unfortunately, we have
moved into the third wave of diseases, those conditions that
take years to develop. We don't a lot about the actual dust and
fumes that enveloped Lower Manhattan. I would like to reiterate
that, as medical professions, we never believed the air was
safe to breathe. That is now amply clear.
The World Trade Center now collects additional data on
diseases that have been classified as World Trade Center
related. This is crucial since early data collection on who was
exposed was lacking. Further research is ongoing to determine
what new diseases might be added to the approved list.
Since 2012, when over 50 cancers were added to the list of
World Trade Center conditions, there have been 11,824 World
Trade Center certified cancers treated, including 2,614
prostate, 552 lung, 741 breast, including over 35 male breast
cancers, 667 thyroid, 571 cases of lymphoma and hundreds more.
Glioblastoma have occurred like the one that killed Candidus
Henry, a patient at the Northwell program. You will hear from
his widow in this session.
The survivor program has had 3,030 individuals with cancer.
And in the national program, the number of cancer cases
certified increased from 7 in 2013 to 708 in 2018. Nearly
20,000 children attended school below Houston Street and were
exposed to over 150 toxicants in that deadly brew.
Overall, over 55,000 people have been certified for at
least one World Trade Center related health condition in the
responder and survivor programs and in the national programs.
The effects from exposure of 9/11 have not only been measured
in the number of deaths, cancers, lung transplants, and
countless new cases of asthma, studies have shown the impact on
employment disability and early retirement.
I would like to briefly tell you about the impact by
telling you about a real person. Elli Engler, who is here today
and has allowed me to give a brief description of her health
issues, was a certified industrial hygienist in charge of
health and safety for the United Federation of Teachers. She
went into every school in Lower Manhattan, assessed the
immediate health risk for staff and children. In 2008, she
developed a second breast cancer, a condition she had fought
and beat in 1985. She developed asthma shortly after 9/11, but
it was under control. Recently, she has had severe asthma
attacks that have required hospital visits. Elli, like so many
in the World Trade Center community, fought these illnesses
with courage.
After 2011, she also realized that all 500 staff at these
schools in Lower Manhattan were eligible for the health program
if they had World Trade Center conditions, and she began staff
outreach. She also advocates on behalf of the school children
in Lower Manhattan who have now all graduated and moved
throughout this country. Her clinical future, like so many
others, is uncertain, and she will require close monitoring and
care for the rest of her life. She is truly a hero.
On September 11, 2,973 people lost their lives, including
firefighters, police officers, EMS workers, and people just
going to work. Since then, an additional 204 police officers,
180 FDNY firefighters, and, in total, an estimated 2,000
responders and survivors have died as a result of 9/11
illnesses. With every day, these numbers increase. Soon the day
will come when there are more people who died of World Trade
Center related illnesses after 9/11 than perished on that
horrible day.
Based on the trends we have seen in research; this third
wave of 9/11 diseases will continue. Because of the monitoring
program, we are able to identify new clusters of disease that
will develop, such as neurological conditions, autoimmune
disorders, and diseases we can't foresee.
I consider myself fortunate to have been in New York City
on 9/11 so I could contribute to caring for the thousands of
men and women who suffered from occupational and environmental
exposures from the World Trade Center dust and fumes. Being
able to serve my patients and our Nation as a physician
involved in the World Trade Center Health Programs is one of
the greatest honors of my life.
Thank you.
[The statement of Dr. Moline follows:]
FOR THE RECORD JACQUELINE MOLINE, M.D.
=======================================================================
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Dr. Moline.
Ms. Nordstrom.
TESTIMONY OF LILA NORDSTROM
Ms. Nordstrom. Thank you to Chairman Nadler, Chairman
Cohen, and Ranking Member Johnson, and the Members of the
Committee for holding a hearing on this incredibly important
issue.
My name is Lila Nordstrom. And on September 11, I was a 17-
year-old student at Stuyvesant High School, which is a public
school that is three blocks from the World Trade Center. On the
morning of 9/11, I was in class with windows facing south, and
my classmates and I watched as planes hit the Twin Towers. We
watched dozens of people jumping to their deaths. We watched
thousands of evacuees stream out of the area. Then the first
tower fell, and a dust cloud rushed our building. We couldn't
see anything.
I was one of the first people out of Stuyvesant when we
finally got evacuation orders. The moment I stepped outside,
the second tower collapsed, and everybody took off in a run.
I walked 10 miles that day. I couldn't reach my parents. I
didn't end up even going home. I ended up walking all the way
to Queens.
After the attacks, we were sent to a school in Brooklyn
temporarily. The Stuyvesant building was used as a morgue and a
command center for the cleanup effort at Ground Zero because of
its proximity.
Unfortunately, after EPA Administrator Christine Todd
Whitman told the residents of downtown and New Yorkers that the
air was safe to breathe, government officials made the decision
to return us to our school building. We went back on October 9,
which is less than a month after the attacks.
Ground Zero was still on fire and would be for another 4
months. The smell of smoke was suffocating every day. Despite
assurances from officials, very little got done to clean the
school for students. No hazmat team got called in. The filters
in our ventilation system were not replaced until January. The
air vents, which were filled with World Trade Center dust, were
not cleaned until the following summer. The auditorium's
contaminated upholstery was not actually replaced fully until
2014, which you can see on the image above.
The school was also continually recontaminated by trucks
that were carting toxic debris from the World Trade Center site
past our school and dumping it into barges that were parked
next to the air intake system. Testing of the air outside of
our school showed that on many days it was actually as bad as
the air at Ground Zero itself. You can see where the barge was
located. That picture is taken from the doors of our school.
In total, more than 19,000 public school students returned
to school downtown during the cleanup as did thousands of
teachers and school staff. 10s of thousands of students and
professors from Borough's Manhattan Community College and Pace
University and NYU, downtown residents and office workers were
actively encouraged to return, even those that had small
children at home. And many of them got left to clean up
dangerously contaminated spaces without much guidance.
Federal dollars even got spent by the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation to encourage new residents to move into
the area because, unsurprisingly, they began to face really
high vacancy rates.
Through all of this, the EPA knew that the air was not safe
down there, but they did not tell us.
NIOSH has now linked more than 68 cancers to the World
Trade Center toxins. I haven't even had my 20th high school
reunion yet, but I already have five former classmates with
lymphomas that I just know personally. My friend Michele is in
remission from thyroid cancer. Other classmates of mine have
been diagnosed with rare bone cancers, testicular cancers,
melanomas. There is even a male breast cancer survivor among
us, as Dr. Moline was talking about earlier.
Classmates are also starting to die now. Just a couple of
months ago, Cathy Choy, who graduated just a year after me,
passed away at aged 33 of a 9/11-linked gastric cancer. Her VCF
award has not been paid yet. When it is paid to her husband, it
will be cut by 50 or 70 percent.
That is just my school. BMCC students are sick, as are
students from Pace, and as are many younger children from the
area.
Beyond cancer, plenty of us are already suffering from
chronic 9/11-related conditions, myself included. I am
personally certified with asthma, with GERD, with chronic
rhinosinusitis, and with PTSD.
So, these serious illnesses that are emerging now are just
the tip of the iceberg. If the VCF is allowed to close, a lot
of my classmates will not find out they are sick in time to
make a claim at all.
Women have special reason to be concerned, because most of
the research that has been done on 9/11 health impacts has been
done on the responder population, which is largely male. That
means that a lot of women's health issues will not actually be
linked to the attacks in time to ever be compensable through
the VCF.
The youngest 9/11 survivors now, we live all over the
Nation, and we have, you know, 70 or 80 years to live with
these exposures, in the case of the youngest exposed. Cancer
does not respect arbitrary funding deadlines. If the VCF is
allowed to reduce payouts and expire, this resource that was
meant to ease our suffering is going to become just another
symbol of how we were sacrificed by a government that thought a
quick return to normalcy after a tragic event was more
important than the health and safety of the children who lived
through it.
In 2011 and 2015, the government did the right thing and
enacted and then reauthorized the Zadroga Act, and Congress
should do the right thing one more time and fully fund and
extend the VCF. My friends who get sick in 2027 deserve the
same help they would have received if they had gotten sick in
2017, and so do I.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Nordstrom follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF LILA NORDSTROM
Thank you to Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, and
the rest of the Committee for holding a hearing on this
incredibly important issue.
My name is Lila Nordstrom. On September 11th, 2001 I was 17
years-old and a student at Stuyvesant High School, a New York
City public school with 3,000 students just three blocks from
the World Trade Center.
The morning of 9/11 I was in a class on the tenth floor
with windows facing the Twin Towers. My classmates and I saw
two planes hit the World Trade Center and watched in horror as
dozens of people jumped to their deaths and thousands of people
evacuated. We were still in class when the first building
collapsed. As a dust cloud rushed towards our windows, we were
ordered to go to our homerooms, then, eventually, to evacuate
the building.
I was one of the first people to evacuate Stuyvesant. The
instant that I stepped outside, the second WTC tower collapsed
and everybody began to run. I eventually ran out of breath and
a gym teacher named Ms. Luczak, herself only two years out of
college, found me and began to walk with me. People had parked
along the Hudson River to play radio news for evacuees, so as
we walked we heard reports that many unidentified planes were
still in the air and that the entire island of Manhattan could
be evacuated. We were far from any bridges and thought we might
end up having to swim. I told her that I didn't know how, so
she told me she could swim me across the Hudson River if we got
trapped. We slowly found other students as we walked and
eventually one of my friends joined the group. I was too afraid
to go home, having heard on the radio that a plane was headed
for the Empire State Building, only a few blocks from where I
lived, so I walked across the 59th Street Bridge with her
instead. We eventually made it on foot to Astoria, Queens, ten
miles in total, and I spent the night at her house.
When classes resumed, Stuyvesant students were told to
report to a high school in Brooklyn. At the time our school
building was being used as a command center and morgue for the
WTC cleanup effort because of it's proximity to Ground Zero.
Less than a week after the attacks, however, Christine Todd
Whitman, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency,
assured New Yorkers that the air downtown was ``safe to
breath.'' Based on this reassurance, government officials made
the decision to send Stuyvesant students back to lower
Manhattan on October 9th, less than a month after the attacks.
On the day that Stuyvesant students returned to lower
Manhattan, Ground Zero was still burning and would continue to
burn for another three months. It was the early days of the
cleanup so the neighborhood wasn't yet open to the public, and
every morning, students had to pass through multiple police
checkpoints just to get into the school. Once there, we were
given cryptic warnings not to drink out of the water fountains
or leave during the day for any reason.
The acrid smell of a smoke permeated the building every day
by noon, and the school was constantly re-contaminated by a
continuous line of trucks carrying hazardous debris from the
WTC site to the barge docked next to the building. From the
third floor students could watch as clouds of dust spiraled
into the air while truck after truck dumped loads of toxic
pulverized debris right next to our air intake system. The
happened all day, every day. The trucks were uncovered and as
they drove by they also left a trail of dust behind them that
settled on every surface outside. Testing of the air around the
school showed that on many days there were the same levels of
toxic dust in the air around Stuyvesant as there were at Ground
Zero itself. Government agencies were repeatedly asked to at
least hose down the truckloads of debris, but by the time they
started doing so winter had set in and they had to stop because
the debris was freezing.
It was only after our return that we learned how haphazard
and incomplete the cleaning of our building had been as it
transitioned from morgue back to school. No HazMat team was
called in to clean Stuyvesant. The highly publicized one
million dollars reportedly spent to clean the building was not
used to replace the contaminated filters in our ventilation
system, which remained until the end of January, after months
of stalling by the Board of Education. The money was also not
used to clean the building's air vents, which were still packed
with WTC dust when I graduated that spring. The money was
certainly not used to replace the contaminated carpeting and
fabric in our auditorium, either. That room, where we held our
first meeting upon returning and the school's most popular
event that spring, was not fully reupholstered until 2014, more
than ten years later.
Suffice it to say my lungs suffered, and I certainly was
not alone. As soon as Stuyvesant students returned there were
widespread reports of nosebleeds, coughs that just wouldn't go
away, chronic headaches, and students suffering from a slew of
worsening respiratory issues.
That was layered on top of the trauma of the attacks
themselves, and the continuing trauma of living with the
cleanup. One day we arrived to find the mangled remainder the
sphere statue that sat between the Twin Towers parked in front
of our school, a horrifying reminder for us to ponder as we
started the day. We also had fire drills in our first days back
that showed us our new emergency route, which was, for some
reason, to run towards Ground Zero. The area was still closed
off to the public and was populated by with National Guardsmen
in heavy duty dust masks. It turned out that our usual
evacuation route was being blocked by the debris barge. We were
sandwiched between the fire and the dust.
Unfortunately, Stuyvesant was not the only school in Lower
Manhattan to send children downtown before it was safe. There
were some 19,000 public school students in the contamination
zone between the fall of 2001 and spring of 2002, including
thousands of elementary-aged kids. There were, in fact, two
public elementary schools just across the street from
Stuyvesant, both within two blocks of the barge operation.
There were also students attending private schools in the area,
as well as thousands of children living downtown who either
weren't old enough for school or went to school outside the
zone.
Thousands of teachers and school staff were also exposed
when these schools reopened, as were tens of thousands of
college students and professors at Borough of Manhattan
Community College and PACE University, and hundreds of NYU
students living in downtown housing.
Beyond the schools, lower Manhattan is also one of the
busiest and most densely populated neighborhoods in the U.S.,
and roughly 25,000 residents and 325,000 office workers also
returned to the area before it was safe. Many were left to
clean up contaminated homes and offices themselves, given only
dangerously inadequate guidance, which they followed unaware of
the great risk to their health. Many of these spaces were
continually re-contaminated by the cleanup process anyway. At
the same time, government dollars were spent to entice
unsuspecting new residents, including young families, to the
area. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, facing
vacancy rates as high as 50% in some areas, used this public
money to fund major rent subsidies for new residents.
Meanwhile, survivors spent long months in the center of a toxic
stew as government officials told them any symptoms they
experienced were in their heads or would disappear as soon as
the fires went out.
What the EPA knew, but we didn't, was that the air was not
safe. Now, in addition to the illnesses and deaths we're seeing
among responders, the death toll from 9/11-related illnesses is
also mounting among survivors and new people continue to fall
ill, many of them my age or younger.
Like many survivors I now suffer from 9/11-related health
conditions. Many of these conditions are chronic. My entire 20s
was dominated by financial panic because even asthma and GERD
can be quite expensive to treat under our current health care
system. Adding to that stress is the fact that doctors in
California, where I live, have often never seen a 9/11 survivor
and don't understand the unique health risks I face. The World
Trade Center Health Program has meaningfully changed my life.
More specifically the Nationwide Provider Network has been a
huge advantage for the thousands of lower Manhattan students
who went away to college or started their adult lives
elsewhere. I used to stockpile asthma medicine and ``wait it
out'' when I should have gone to the doctor. Thanks to the WTC
Health Program, I don't have to do those things anymore.
Unfortunately my future, and that of my classmates, is
looking a little more scary than chronic-but-hopefully-
manageable health conditions. Back in January 2006, when James
Zadroga became the first responder to have his death directly
linked to his exposures on 9/11, an autopsy revealed ground
glass, asbestos, chromium, lead and benzene in his lung tissue.
Responders were not the only people exposed to these known
carcinogens. So were we.
NIOSH has now linked more than 68 cancers to the WTC
toxins. Not surprisingly, many former students from the schools
south of Canal Street, as well as Members of the community and
people who worked in the area, are now being diagnosed with the
same cancers as the first responders.
I already can say that I went to school with more cancer
survivors than anybody I know, and I haven't even had my 20th
high school reunion yet. Just in my limited personal network
from Stuyvesant I know at least five people who have been
diagnosed with lymphomas, my friend Michele is in remission
from thyroid cancer, and another classmate from my year is in
remission from testicular cancer. Other Stuyvesant alumni from
those years have been diagnosed with rare bone cancers,
melanoma, and there's even a male breast cancer survivor among
us.
Now our classmates, people still in their 20s and early
30s, are starting to die. Just a couple of months ago a
classmate of mine, Cathy Choy, passed away at age 33 from 9/11-
linked gastric cancer. Her Victim Compensation Fund award has
not yet been paid. When her husband finally receives it, it
will be reduced by either 50% or 70%.
Stuyvesant students are not the only ones getting sick.
Rozaliya Yarusska was a 22-year-old Pace University student on
9/11 and has been diagnosed with nasal cancer and eye cancer.
Magdali Vergara-Martinez was a 17-year-old BMCC student. She's
been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her VCF award will be cut
50%. The growing number of cancer cases has had an affect on
all of us, even those that aren't sick. With each new cancer
report I also hear from classmates consumed by fears about
what's around the bend and wondering what we can do to protect
ourselves.
The fact that people our age are only starting to get sick
and die now is not surprising. We were younger when exposed, so
the latency periods for our illnesses have been longer. For us,
and for our families, our concern is compounded by the fact
that the Victim Compensation Fund is closing. While those who
are sick now will receive drastically reduced awards, many of
my friends won't find out they're sick in time to make any
claim at all.
Women have even more reason to be concerned. Much of the
early research on 9/11's health impacts was done on the
disproportionately male responder population. Many women's
health conditions won't make it onto the list of covered
conditions in time to be compensable through the VCF. Breast
cancer has just now surpassed prostate cancer as the most
commonly diagnosed cancer among survivors, but there still
isn't much data on women's reproductive health or conditions
such as autoimmune disorders that disproportionately affect
women. We've seen the surge in breast cancers in the news, of
course, but only because an unusual number of these cases are
in men. One of these men, as I mentioned before, is a classmate
of mine.
Young adults are also especially at risk of losing out on
the VCF because we face some big obstacles to even finding out
about the 9/11 health services. Like me, many of us no longer
live in New York City and don't have access to local
information about the VCF, don't see it reported on in local
media, and don't have local advocates. This often seems to get
lost in the conversation about who needs this program and why.
Stuyvesant alumni alone live in locales from rural Tenessee, to
coastal Oregon, to Texas and beyond. Thousands of other New
York City kids have begun their adult lives in other parts of
the country as well.
Unfortunately, cancer does not respect arbitrary funding
deadlines. Right now there are thousands of 17 and 18 year-
olds, just beginning their adult lives, who will have to live
with the results of their WTC exposures for another 70 or 80
years. The older exposed kids, people my age, are learning of
our increasingly terrifying health prospects just as many of us
are starting families or are planning to in the next few years.
When we get sick, when we have to take leave from work to
recover or god forbid pass away from a serious illness with a
young child at home, who is going to help our families fill in
the financial gap? A responder or a survivor who gets sick in
2027 deserves the same help that they would've have received if
they got sick in 2017.
Those of us exposed to the toxic dust at Ground Zero as
kids had our health put at risk before we were old enough to
understand the risks or give informed consent. Upon our return
to Stuyvesant we were even paraded in front of news cameras to
show how ``safe'' it was downtown. Essentially, were
conscripted into a massive PR effort that encouraged the rest
of the community to return to a dangerous place even as the
Federal Government knew the air might make all of us sick. If
the VCF is allowed to reduce payouts and expire, a resource
meant to ease our suffering will become yet another symbol of
how we were sacrificed by a government that thought a quick
return to normalcy after a tragic event was more important than
the health and safety of the children who lived through it, the
responders who cleaned up the mess, and the thousands of area
workers and residents who were lied to and compelled to put
their health on the line without their knowledge or consent.
As health concerns begin to overwhelm us, we hope the
Federal Government will have our backs. In 2011, and again in
2015, the Government did the right thing by enacting, and then
re-authorizing, the Zadroga Health and Compensation Act.
Congress must do the right thing one more time and fully fund
and extend the VCF.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Ms. Nordstrom.
We have been joined by a number of the firefighters who
were first responders, and I want to welcome them, and by
Congressman Max Rose, who is a cosponsor of this bill.
Let me just say, before I recognize the next witness, in
response to what Ms. Nordstrom just said, as I said before,
there are really two moral responsibilities. Plenty of people
got sick and will get sick because of what the terrorists did
on 9/11, but plenty of people got sick and will get sick
because of what the Federal Government did in the days
following.
I remember very clearly the EPA Administrator saying, ``Go
back to work. Let's get things back to normal. Everything is
fine.'' I remember the mayor at the time saying, ``Reopen
Stuyvesant,'' et cetera. I was calling for parents not to send
their kids back to Stuyvesant. I was telling people not to go
back to Wall Street, not to go back to work, because it was
very evident that it wasn't clear.
The Federal Government bears a heavy moral responsibility
for what happened. This bill is only a--if we pass it--when we
pass it, I hope--would be a very, very small partial repayment
for that moral obligation.
Ms. Henry?
TESTIMONY OF ANESTA MARIA ST. ROSE HENRY
Ms. Henry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Nadler. Can you use your mike, please?
Ms. Henry. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Anesta St. Rose
Henry.
My husband died a few weeks ago of 9/11-related brain
cancer. My husband, Candidus, was only 52 years old when he
died. He missed our son's prom, which was last week, and he
missed out on our frantic search for a jacket because the one
we bought was too small and too short.
Oh, my God.
So, after that, we were able to get the jacket for our son.
I just miss my husband because we would have a good laugh at
that jacket, the way it fit him.
Candidus was the--oh, God--he was the life of my family.
Oh, God. He won't be there for my son's graduation, which will
be on the 19th of this month. Many of the kids his age that
lost their parents, their parents will not be there for that.
Also my daughter, his only daughter's wedding, we do not know
what date is that, but he will not be there to walk her down
the aisle.
So not to have to make that--oh, God. Oh, God. So not only
do I have to make up for his missing presence, but I have to be
worried about whether we will have enough money for our son's
college and living expenses. The reason I have to worry is
because Congress thinks it is okay for my husband's life to be
worth at least 70 percent less than other construction workers
that have died or become sick from being at Ground Zero.
If he died 2 years ago, everything would be okay. I feel
horrible for those that live--oh, God. I feel horrible for
those that will die 2 years from now because their family will
get nothing.
Candidus was a construction worker and a proud man,
husband, father, son. He went to work every day. When he was
assigned to Ground Zero, he was also a proud American.
His job at Ground Zero was to wash the dust and debris from
the trucks before they left for the barges and to make sure
everything was secure, and nothing was sticking out. They
wanted to be sure human remains were not going to fall off the
trucks on the way to the barges. While his job may not sound
glorious, he was proud of it and proud to say he worked at
Ground Zero.
After his time at Ground Zero ended, he worked every day as
a construction laborer, and we raised our family. We are not
rich, and we lived from paycheck to paycheck, always with some
sort of credit card bill.
Although he left Ground Zero in 2002, 15 years later,
Ground Zero came back to him. Candidus was diagnosed with
glioblastoma, a rare brain cancer. We were told it was
extremely rare. We then learned that there are many 9/11
responders with the same cancer.
Glioblastoma is a death sentence, and while it took 2
years, it eventually killed Candidus. It took his mind a few
months before his death, and while we took care of him for the
last few months, he was already gone. My son would come home
from school and my daughter from work and would say, ``Hi,
Dad,'' and there was only a gaze, and sometimes there was
nothing. He only wanted to talk to his dad about his day, and
that was gone.
When Candidus got sick, that ended the paycheck and
benefits. Thankfully, the World Trade Center Health Program
picked up all of the expenses for his care and treatment. They
were wonderful at the Queens Program, and we wouldn't have
survived without them.
We were also able to get some help from the VCF and
received an award for his cancer. They worked so quickly to get
that for us because they knew he was dying. Thank you to them
for that. Please do not cancel them. They are very good. They
helped us very well.
Now that Candidus is gone, we do not know what is going to
happen. We do not have life insurance. We do not have a pension
or any benefits from his job. Not even his death benefit we
got. Our only hope was the VCF, and now we do not know if there
will be much from them now. Because he died after February 2--
which was also his birthday--2019, we will get at least 70
percent less than others that died sooner.
My husband was a proud man and never looked down on others
or thought that he was better, or his life was worth more than
that, but I can tell you that his life is not worth less than
anyone else.
I know my husband would be proud to be here in person and
talking to you, because we should have to recognize these
people are worth more than that because they are more important
than anything else. They were the ones who picked up everything
else. Now that he is gone, we do not know what we are going to
do without him.
Thank you, everyone.
[The statement of Ms. Henry follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF ANESTA MARIA ST. ROSE HENRY
Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman--
My name is Anesta St. Rose Henry and my husband died 2
weeks ago of 9/11 related brain cancer. Candidus was 52 years
old when he died. He missed our son's prom last week and missed
out on the frantic search for a jacket for him hours before the
prom because the one he initially got turned out to be too
small. So after we were able to get the jacket and our son went
to his senior prom Candidus wasn't there for me to laugh with
about the jacket. He will not be there for his high school
graduation or to walk his daughter down the aisle when she gets
married. So not only do I have to make up for his missing
presence, but now I have to be worried about whether we will
have enough money for college and living expenses.
The reason I have to worry is because Congress thinks its
ok for my husband's life to be worth at least 70% less than
other construction workers that have died or become sick from
being at Ground Zero. If he died 2 years ago everything would
be ok. I feel horrible for those that will die 2 years from now
because their families will get nothing.
Candidus was a construction worker and a proud man, husband
and father. He wanted to work every day. When he was assigned
to work at Ground Zero he was also a proud American. His job at
Ground Zero was to wash the dust and debris off the trucks
before they left for the barges and to make sure everything was
secure and nothing was sticking out. They wanted be sure human
remains were not going to fall out of the trucks on their way
to the barges. While his job may not sound glorious, he was
proud of it and proud to say he worked at Ground Zero.
After his time at Ground Zero ended he worked every day as
a construction laborer and we raised our family. We are not
rich and we lived pay check to pay check, always with some sort
of credit card bill. Although he left Ground Zero in 2002, 15
years later Ground Zero came back to him. Candidus was
diagnosed with Glioblastoma, a rare brain cancer. We were told
it was extremely rare. We then learned that there are many 9/11
responders with the same cancer.
Glioblastoma is a death sentence and while it took 2 years,
it eventually killed Candidus. It took his mind a few months
before his death and while we took care of him for the last few
months, he was already gone. My son would come home from school
and say ``Hi Dad'' and there was only a gaze sometimes and
sometimes there was nothing. He only wanted to talk to his dad
about his day, and that was gone.
When Candidus got sick that ended the paychecks and
benefits. Thankfully the World Trade Center Health Program
picked up all of the expenses for his care and treatment. They
were wonderful at the Queens Program and we wouldn't have
survived without them. We were also able to get some help from
the VCF and received an award for his cancer. They worked so
quick to get that for us because we they knew he was dying.
Thank you to them for that.
But now that Candidus is gone we don't know what is going
to happen. We do not have life insurance. We do not have a
pension or any benefits from his job. Our only hope was the VCF
and now we don't know if there will be much from them now.
Because he died after February 2, 2019, we will get at least
70% less than others that died sooner. My husband was a proud
man and never looked down on others or thought that he was
better or his life was worth more than others. BUT I can tell
you that his life is NOT worth less than anyone else.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Ms. St. Rose Henry. Let me say
that we are here today to help make sure that Congress does not
think it is okay that your husband's life is worth 70 percent
less than other construction workers or than anyone else's. I
thank you for your testimony. It will help in that goal.
Mr. Mohnal?
TESTIMONY OF THOMAS J. MOHNAL
Mr. Mohnal. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the
committee. Thank you for allowing me to testify today.
My name is Thomas Mohnal, and I began my career with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 3, 1980, and retired
on May 30, 2010, as a supervisory special agent explosive and
hazardous device examiner in the Explosives Unit of the FBI
Laboratory.
In the moments after the Pentagon was attacked, I became
what is known as a 9/11 first responder. Just like others
sitting with me today, we did our job, and we did it well
beyond 100 percent. We did everything we could do to rescue
those that were trapped, and we did everything we could to find
those who were missing so their families could have the closure
that they desperately needed.
Like everyone else here today and all other first
responders, I will never forget 9/11, and I always knew it
would be with me. What I didn't know was what that would mean
some 15 years later to me and my family.
On 9/11, I was working FBI headquarters in Washington, DC,
and after the second plane hit the World Trade Center, I was
directed to go to New York City in response to the FBI
Laboratory. I departed headquarters en route to my residence in
Manassas, Virginia, and I was traveling on I-395 South.
When I was directly across from the Pentagon in stopped
traffic, at approximately 9:37 a.m., I witnessed American
Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. I immediately
notified our headquarters that a plane had crashed into the
Pentagon and immediately responded to the crash site and
started lending assistance to victims in the area.
FBI agents and Members of the evidence response teams from
Washington field office began arriving very quickly, fully
aware that the lifesaving and investigative activities that
they would undertake in response to this terrorist attack could
put their lives in danger. Evidence response teams from
Baltimore, Richmond, Norfolk, Charlotte, and Atlanta also
deployed to the Pentagon.
On August 4, 2016, I was diagnosed with follicular non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was certified by the World Trade Center
Health Program and received excellent care and regular
physicals through that excellent program.
I am here today to ask Congress why they believe that my
life is not worth the same as those that became sick before me
and how my life could be worth more than those that will most
certainly become ill after me.
It doesn't care who you are, what you did, or when you did
it. The guidelines are fair and based on the exposure and your
illness, and then the compensation is based on the economic
loss and of that particular illness.
The Special Master over the years has done a great job on
managing a program fairly and equally in the face of illness,
death, and despair. Now, because so many people are becoming
sick and the funds are running out, the Special Master is being
forced to look at cases through different lenses based on when
the forms were filed. That means that our lives and illnesses
now have a different value and meaning.
I have had the pleasure to come to the Capitol on several
occasions now with the FealGood Foundation to walk the halls of
Congress to ask for support for the 9/11 first responders and
the Victim Compensation Fund. I have learned that every Member
in Congress has praised the work of first responders and the 9/
11 first responders. I have learned that on September 11 every
Member of Congress pauses in remembrance of those that were
lost that day and those that we will continue to lose. I have
also learned that every Member of Congress promises to never
forget.
I am here to support our colleagues that have become sick
in the past and those who will become sick in the future. There
are people in this room right now that will become sick from
their 9/11 exposure and die. Their families will need the
support beyond the words ``never forget.''
Congress has the ability to fix this problem. Nearly every
FBI evidence response team in the country deployed to one of
the attack sites to sift through thousands of tons of
contaminated debris, looking for any shred of evidence that may
lend assistance in this investigation.
Passport fragments were found of the hijackers, to include
the knives that were actually used in the attack were recovered
from crash sites. This shows the extreme dedication the workers
had while sifting through contaminated debris, knowing all
along that this could possibly affect their health.
Many thousands of Americans, first responders,
firefighters, police officers, and volunteers have been
diagnosed with severe health conditions, including cancer, in
the wake of the attacks. Knowing the type of individuals that
sacrificed their health and in many cases their lives, they
would all do the same job all over again for this country.
This is a nationwide issue, and it must be fixed by our
leaders in Congress together, as there are no State lines for a
9/11 illness.
Thank you for your time.
[The statement of Mr. Mohnal follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF THOMAS J. MOHNAL
Good morning Mr. Chairman and Members of the committee:
My name is Thomas J. Mohnal and I began my career with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 3, 1980 and
retired on May 30, 2010 as a Supervisory Special Agent--
Explosive and Hazardous Device Examiner in the Explosives Unit
of the FBI Laboratory. On June 1, 2010, I began employment with
Bode Cellmark Forensics as an Explosive and Hazardous Device
Contractor for the Explosives Unit of the FBI Laboratory,
Quantico, Virginia.
As an Explosives and Hazardous Device Examiner in the FBI
Laboratory my principal role was to examine evidence pertaining
to the criminal/terrorist use of explosives and improvised
explosive devices (IEDs). I have been responsible for the
supervision, management, and/or coordination of forensic
examinations and have provided technical and investigative
support for several hundred highly complex bombing/terrorism
investigations, to include: The 1993 World Trade Center
bombing, bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, the
bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 1998 bombing of the
U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the 9/11 terrorist investigation,
several Vehicle-Borne IEDs in Beirut, Lebanon, the UNABOM
series from 1982-1996, and the 2005 assassination attempt on
President Bush in Tbilisi, Georgia.
In the moments after the Pentagon was attacked, I became
what is now known as a 9/11 First Responder. Just like the
others sitting with me we did our job and we did it well beyond
100%. We did everything we could to rescue those that were
trapped and, just as important, we did everything we could to
find those that were missing so that their families could have
the closure they so desperately wanted. We also made sure that
the entire world new that we would never back down to terrorism
and we would move forward, albeit a ``post 9/11 world.'' My
life was certainly worth no more or less than the other First
Responders that came to the Pentagon and whether it is
Shanksville, the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, we were
one then and we are one now as we sit before you. Like everyone
else here today and all other first responders, I would never
forget 9/11 and I always new it would be with me. What I didn't
know was what that would mean some 15 years later, when 9/11
took on a whole new personal aspect to me and my family.
On 9/11/2001 I was working at FBIHQ in the Explosives Unit,
Laboratory Division and after the second plane hit the World
Trade Center I was directed to go to New York City in response
for the FBI Laboratory. I departed FBIHQ enroute to my
residence in Manassas, Virginia, traveling on I-395 south. When
I was directly across from the Pentagon in stopped traffic, at
approximately 9:37 a.m., I witnessed American Airlines Flight
77 crashing into the Pentagon. I immediately notified FBI
Headquarters that a plane just crashed into the Pentagon and I
immediately responded to the crash site and started lending
assistance to victims in the area. The entire section of the
crash site was engulfed in a tremendous fire supported from the
jet fuel. I've done a lot of testing with large amounts of
explosives, to include gas-enhanced explosions, but I can't
even describe to you how big and intense the fireball was when
the plane crashed into the Pentagon. It pretty much encompassed
the majority of the Pentagon. I spent the entire day at the
Pentagon providing immediate assistance and on the early
morning of 9/12/2001 I reported back to the Pentagon to begin
assisting with the recovery operation and the terrorist
investigation. I worked the day shift, 10-12 hour days, 5-7
days per week, from 9/11/2001 until approximately 11/19/2001.
FBI agents and Members of the Evidence Response Team from
the Washington Field Office began arriving at the Pentagon
quickly after the impact, fully aware that the life-saving and
investigative activities they would undertake in response to
the terrorist attack could put their lives in danger. Evidence
Response Teams from Baltimore Maryland, Richmond Virginia,
Norfork Virginia, Charlotte North Carolina, and Atlanta Georgia
also deployed to the Pentagon to assists in this terrorism
investigation. It should be noted that the FBI Evidence
Response Teams are made up from FBI Special Agents and FBI
Professional Staff.
The jet fueled fires continued until the evening of 9/12/
2001, with fires continuing for approximately a week or so. The
environment during the first several days featured strong
odors, fumes from jet fuel, and smoldering debris, which
included plastics, fiberglass, aluminum, and due to the extreme
temperature of the fires, even some types of metals. Most FBI
employees remained outside the building on the first day due to
the extreme hazards inside, although the smoky haze extended
well outside the Pentagon's walls.
Early in the first week, I specifically remember being
inside the Pentagon on the first floor collecting human remains
into red Hazmat bags, and looking for other potential evidence.
We would have been inhaling contaminated air from the fire,
including dust from the building and chemicals from the plane
to include the jet fuel. During this very crucial first week of
evidence recovery, fires continued to re-ignite from the
extreme heat of the original jet fueled fires. This made the
recovery task very difficult and dangerous from the
contaminated air and dust filled building.
I also have a very specific memory of walking through the
Pentagon, from the outer ring to the inner ring, with Members
of the Evidence Response Teams to spend time searching for
evidence near the nose of the plane. We were often leaning down
over the water, breathing close to the water, to reach for
something in or under the water. This water and mud contained
all sorts of toxins, including but not limited to airline fuel
and chemicals, as well as dust, debris and chemicals from the
building, and human remains.
Later in the following weeks, I have a specific memory of
working in the debris fields of the parking lots surrounding
the Pentagon with Members of the Evidence Response Teams. We
would rake through the debris field on the ground, then squat
or kneel down over it and sift through it with tools or our
hands to look for human remains or smaller bits of evidence.
The smallest fragments of evidence, such as an identification
card of the hijackers would have provided valuable information
for this investigation. This debris field would have been
filled with chemicals, debris, human remains and dust from the
building and airplane.
Supervisory Special Agents from the FBI Laboratory,
Explosives Unit, were deployed to all three (3) of the
terrorist attack sites to lend their expertise in processing
major crime scenes and provide assistance to the Evidence
Response Teams. Considering I witnessed one of the worst
terrorist attacks on United States soil, I had an obligation to
myself as well as the FBI to continue working at the Pentagon
crash site until the completion and to provide as much
assistance and my expertise in this terrorist investigation as
I possibly could.
The last couple weeks at the Pentagon migrated into a
clean-up operation, however, evidence recovery was still a
major part of the this process. As contaminated debris was
removed from the interior of the Pentagon, a sifting operation
took place. Virtually every pile of debris was systematically
searched for any possible shred of evidence.
The Explosive Unit was in charge of the evidence from all
three of the crash sites. I supervised the photographing of the
evidence sent into the FBI Laboratory from the Pentagon, from
the World Trade Center Towers, including all evidence recovered
from the land fill in New York, and evidence recovered from the
Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site. This project took place
in FBIHQ and at off-site locations in Northern Virginia were
some of the evidence was stored. The photography, review and
physical bench notes of the evidence recovered from the three
attacks took several months to complete. Special Agent Bomb
Technican's from many FBI Field Offices around the country also
provided assistance in this tremendous task.
On August 4, 2016, I went to the emergency room with
extreme stomach pains expecting to find out I had appendicitis.
In the normal course of care the doctors had ordered a CT scan
to assess the situation. The CT scan verified that I had a
ruptured appendix, and also indicated three (3) tumors that
were consistent with Lymphoma. My appendix was surgically
removed and I was later diagnosed with Follicular Non-Hodgkin's
Lymphoma. Over the last 2\1/2\ years I had 18 cycles of
chemotherapy treatment and currently on a maintenance treatment
every 8 weeks. I had two bone marrow biopsies, and nine PET/CT
scans, with my most recent PET scan indicating a moderate
increase in size and activity in the tumors. I was certified by
the World Trade Center Health Program on October 3, 2017 and
have received excellent care and regular physicals through this
program.
I am here today to ask why Congress believes that my life
is not worth the same as those that became sick before me and
some how my life is worth more than those that will most
certainly come after me. The September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund is not a beauty contest. It doesn't care who you are, what
you did or when you did it. The guidelines are fair and based
on your exposure and your illness and then compensation is
supposed to be based on the illness and economic loss. It is
not a lottery ticket or a get rich quick scheme. The Special
Master over the years has done a great job of managing a
program fairly and equally in the face of illness, death and
despair. Now, because so many people are becoming sick and the
funds are running out the Special Master is being forced to
look at cases through different lenses based on when it was
filed. That means that our lives and illnesses now have
different values and meanings. THAT IS ABSURD.
One thing is certain, THE SPECIAL MASTER DOES NOT HAVE THE
POWER TO FUND THE PROGRAM, I DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO FUND THE
PROGAM, NOBODY AT THIS TABLE HAS THE POWER TO FUND THIS
PROGRAM. ONLY YOU & THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS HAVE THE ABILITY GET
THE FUNDING TO KEEP THIS PROGRAM RUNNING. ONLY YOU!
I have had the pleasure to come to the Capitol on several
occasions now with the FEALGOOD FOUNDATION to walk the halls of
Congress to ask for support of the 9/11 first responder in the
VCF. What I have learned was quite eye opening, even given my
exceptionally unique career in law enforcement. I have learned
that every member of Congress has praised the work of first
responders and 9/11 first responders. I have learned that every
September 11 that every member of Congress pauses in
remembrance of those lost that day and those that we continue
to lose. I have learned that every member of Congress promises
to ``Never Forget.'' Despite all that I have learned from
coming here I do not understand why WE have to be here today.
I am here to support my colleagues that have become sick in
the past and those that will become sick in the future. There
are people in this room right now that will become sick from
their 9/11 exposures and die. Their families will need the
support beyond the words ``Never Forget.'' Their lives are
worth less than mine because they got sick later than I did. I
do not really think about those that may receive a higher award
than my family does. I don't know why, but I just do not.
HOWEVER, I DO THINK ABOUT THOSE THAT WILL GET LESS THAN I DO
and it's a HORRIBLE FEELING.
YOU ARE PUTTING US IN A POSITION WHERE WE HAVE TO SEE
OTHERS WITH THE SAME ILLNESSES GET LESS. THAT'S A HORRIBLE
FEELING. MANY OF US ALREADY DEAL WITH THE QUESTION OF WHY WE
DIDN'T PERISH THAT DAY OR OF ILLNESSES SINCE. THAT'S HEAVY
ENOUGH. NOW WE HAVE TO THINK THAT WE MAY HAVE RECEIVED MORE
THAN SOMEONE ELSE? THAT'S NOT A GOOD FEELING.
CONGRESS has the ability to fix this problem. While we all
may have somewhat different 9/11 experiences, we were all
together then, now and in the future. My agency is an example
of how people came from all over the country to assist at the
disaster sites. It is also an example of how the illnesses did
not care where you responded to or where you were from. We have
lost at least 16 Members of the FBI to 9/11 illness from their
duty at The Pentagon, Shanksville and Ground Zero. This is a
nationwide issue and it must be fixed by our leaders in
Congress together, as there are NO STATE LINES for 9/11
illnesses and deaths.
It should also be noted that nearly every FBI Evidence
Response Team in the country deployed to one of the attack
sites to sift through thousands of contaminated metric tons of
debris looking for any shread of evidence that may lean
assistance in this investigation. Passport fragments of the
Hijackers, to include the knives that were used in the attack
were recovered from the crash sites. This shows the extreme
dedication the Members of the Evidence Response Teams had while
sifting through tons of contaminated debris, knowing all along
that this could possibly affect their health.
As the years have passed, the survivors and first
responders of that day have had to deal with another
challenging reminder of our nation's tragedy. Many thousands of
Americans, First Responders, Fire Fighters, Police Officers and
Volunteers have been diagnosed with severe health conditions,
including cancer, in the wake of the attacks. Knowing the type
of individuals that sacrificed their health and in many cases
their lives, including myself, would all do the same job all
over again for this country.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
Mr. O'Connell?
TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL O'CONNELL
Mr. O'Connell. Good morning.
Chairman Nadler. Actually, Lieutenant O'Connell.
Mr. O'Connell. My name is Michael O'Connell, and I am a
retired lieutenant from the New York City Fire Department.
I want to personally thank Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member
Collins, and the Committee Members for allowing me to be here
today at this hearing to tell my story, which is really no
different from the thousands of others who suffer from their
heroic actions.
Today, I can say thank you to the countless selfless
heroes, volunteers, survivors, and those affected at the three
terrorist sites because I get the best healthcare treatment and
I have been compensated by the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund.
I was just a 25-year-old probationary firefighter on that
beautiful Tuesday morning of the 11th without a clue as to what
was happening. I had just transferred from the NYPD in May of
2001 and was not even graduated from the FDNY Fire Academy on
that horrific day.
When the towers were struck, I was home on Long Island and
immediately raced into Ladder 129 in Flushing, Queens, where I
was doing my field training. Within minutes of my arrival, we
started to respond to Lower Manhattan.
During our response, we were notified of the collapse of
the south tower of the World Trade Center, and a fellow
firefighter turned to me and said, ``Do you realize how many
guys we just lost?'' The truth was I didn't have a clue, but I
would learn quickly.
Upon arrival, we went to work right away in the war zone
later known as Ground Zero. We were given many tasks and tried
our best to search for human life, but unfortunately, we
weren't very successful. Countless hours we spent digging by
hand.
To this day, there is only one memory etched into my brain
and one that still haunts me to this day and every night. As
firefighters, we wear Scott packs that are equipped with pass
alarms. Pass alarms are meant to go off when a firefighter is
laid motionless, making a screeching sound so you can go find
them. Well, for the first few minutes of our arrival and the
countless hours that passed, that is all we heard. That was our
brothers trapped beneath the pile of concrete and steel, and we
could not get to them.
It is a difficult memory but one that keeps me going. It
reminds me that those men and women who gave their lives that
day were selfless. I try my best to live my life to that
standard every day.
In the midst of the chaos and loss of life, I can tell you
that there is another thought that I had: I would not want to
be anywhere else in the world at that moment. We were there to
help, and I was part of something that showed the world that we
would not back down to anyone. We helped bring closure to
families that just wanted something tangible, some part that
remained to bury.
Now it is your turn. You were not there on the pile with
us, but what you do in this moment is as important as what we
did at Ground Zero.
I had worked the pile for days and weeks that followed,
with very little protection in the dust cloud, and I would
later pay the ultimate price. The change came on January 1 of
2007 when I woke up and instantly knew something was wrong. I
couldn't get out of bed, and it felt like somebody came into
the room that night and beat me up with a baseball bat. My
ankles, my legs, my feet were so swollen it made it difficult
to even walk to the car to get to the doctor.
I was put through a series of tests, and from what the
doctors had seen, the prognosis did not look good. My wife
Rebecca, who was 6 months pregnant with our first child, was
escorted to a conference room, where a team of doctors waited
for us to give us the news and told us that this looked like an
advanced case of lymphoma and that I most likely didn't have
much time to live.
At this point, all I wanted to do was make it long enough
to see the birth of my first child. It is obvious, since I am
testifying here today, and by the grace of God, I am able to be
here to tell my story. I am a proud father of three beautiful
children named Aidan, Colton, and Alexandra, all of which
witnessed their father battle 9/11 illnesses from the time they
were born.
I was very fortunate that the original prognosis was wrong,
and I was actually diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease
called sarcoidosis. I was one of the youngest and first
firefighters diagnosed with sarcoidosis, but hundreds more have
been diagnosed since. I spent the next few months in recovery,
and with the proper treatments, I was able to get back on my
feet. Sadly, I cannot say that about others.
My career in the FDNY that I was so passionate about was
cut short, and 9/11 ensured I would be unable to continue as a
full-duty firefighter, as I was deemed disabled. I was on pace
to advance through the FDNY as a senior officer, but I was
unable to finish that dream of protecting the greatest city in
the world.
I ask you all respectfully, how is it fair that I was duly
compensated but others that are now sick and dying from their
exposure will not be? It seems unfair that I was unlucky enough
to get sick but lucky that I got sick early enough so that I
could avoid potential cut or, worse, having no VCF as of
December 2020.
How is my family financially safe for a lifetime but the
families of those not diagnosed are left hanging? These people
are getting sick 18 years later and are not going to receive
the same benefits as those who got sick before them because
they were unlucky to get sick at a time when the VCF is running
out of funds.
I speak today in tribute to the 343 firefighters, the 23
NYPD, and the 37 Port Authority Police officers that didn't
make it out on September 11, 2001, and to the thousands who are
still sick and who are dying, and especially for my brother,
Ray Pfeiffer from the FDNY, who is no longer with us.
I promised myself to keep fighting for my family and for
those who are sick or have passed and yet to be compensated,
because one day I might not be here to tell my story. There
will be someone else to follow and continue the tradition--a
tradition that is rich in history and a tradition where no one
is left behind.
In closing, I have made countless trips to the Hill with
the men and women who sit behind me. We came together to join
forces on the FealGood Foundation team from all walks of life--
cops, firefighters, construction workers, correction officers,
civilians, lawyers, students, widows--with one common goal. We
are simply imploring this Committee to extend and refund the
VCF so that thousands of people across this great Nation get
the help that they deserve and they have earned.
Thank you for your time today, Chairman, Ranking Member,
and the committee. God bless you, God bless all those sitting
behind me, and God bless America.
[The statement of Mr. O'Connell follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL O'CONNELL
My name is Michael O'Connell and I am a retired Lieutenant
from the Fire Department of the City of New York. I want to
personally thank Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, and
the Committee Members for allowing me to be here today at this
hearing to tell my story, which is really no different from the
thousands of others who suffer from their heroic actions.
Today, I can say thank you to those countless selfless
heroes, volunteers, survivors, and those affected at the three
terrorist sites because I get the best health care treatment
and I have been compensated by the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund.
I was just a twenty-five year old probationary firefighter
on that beautiful Tuesday morning of the 11th, without a clue
as to what was happening. I had just transferred from the New
York City Police Department in May of 2001, and was not even
graduated from the FDNY Fire Academy on that horrific day.
When the towers were struck, I was home on Long Island and
immediately raced into the Ladder 129 Fire House in Flushing,
Queens where I was doing my field training. Within minutes of
my arrival, we started to respond to Lower Manhattan.
During our response we were notified of the collapse of the
south tower of the World Trade Center and a fellow firefighter
turned to me and said, ``do you realize how many guys we just
lost?'' The truth was that I didn't have a clue, but I would
learn quickly.
Upon arrival, we went to work right in the war zone later
known as ``Ground Zero.'' We were given many tasks and tried
our best to search for human life, but unfortunately, we were
not very successful. Countless hours we spent digging by hand.
To this day, there is only one true memory etched into my
brain, and one that still haunts me when I put my head on the
pillow at night. As firefighters, we wear Scott packs that are
equipped with pass alarms. A pass alarm is meant to go off and
make a loud screeching sound in the likelihood that a
firefighter is stuck and is motionless. For the first few
minutes of our arrival, and the countless hours that passed,
that is all we heard. Our brothers were trapped beneath that
pile of concrete and steel and we could not get to them. It is
a difficult memory, but one that keeps me going. It reminds me
that those men and women who gave their lives that day were
selfless, and I try my best to live my life to that standard.
In the midst of the chaos and loss of life, I can tell you
that there is another thought that I had. I would not want to
be anywhere else in the world at that moment. We were there to
help, and I was part of something that showed the world that we
would not back down to anyone. We helped bring closure to
families that just wanted something tangible, some part that
remained, to bury. Now it is your turn, you were not there on
the Pile, but what you do in this moment is just as important
as what we all did at Ground Zero.
I had worked the pile for the days and weeks that followed,
with very little protection in that dust cloud, and I would
later pay the ultimate price. That change came on January first
of 2007, when I woke up, and instantly knew something was
wrong. I couldn't get out of bed, and it had felt like someone
came in my room that night, and beat me up with a baseball bat.
My legs, ankles and feet were so swollen, it made it very
difficult to walk to the car to get to the doctor. I was put
through a series of tests that day, and from what the doctors
had seen, the prognosis did not look good.
My wife Rebecca, who was six months pregnant with our first
child, was escorted to a conference room where the team of
doctors gave us the news: that this looked like an advanced
case of lymphoma, and that I most likely did not have much time
left. At this point, all I wanted to do was make it long enough
to see the birth of my first child.
It is obvious that, since I am testifying here today, and
by the grace of God, we know what happened. I am a proud father
of three beautiful children named Aidan, Colton, and Alexandra,
who have witnessed their father battle 9/11 illnesses since
they were born.
I was very fortunate that the original prognosis was wrong.
I was actually diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease
called sarcoidosis. I was one of the youngest and first
firefighters diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Hundreds more have
been diagnosed since.
I spent the next few months in recovery, and with the
proper treatments, I was able to get back on my feet. Sadly, I
cannot say that about others.
My career in the FDNY that I was so passionate about was
cut short, and 9/11 ensured I would be unable to continue as a
full duty firefighter. I was on pace to advance throughout the
FDNY as a senior officer, but I was unable to finish that dream
of protecting the greatest city in the world.
I ask you all, respectfully, how is it fair that I was duly
compensated, but others that are now sick and dying from their
exposure will not be? It seems unfair that I was unlucky to get
sick, but lucky in that I got sick early, so that I could avoid
a potential cut, or worse, having no VCF after December 2020?
How is my family financially safe for a lifetime, but the
families of those not yet diagnosed are left hanging? These
people are sick eighteen years later, and are not going to
receive the same benefits as those who got sick before them,
because they are unlucky to get sick at a time when the VCF is
running out of funds.
I speak today in tribute to the 343 firefighters, the 23
NYPD, and the 37 PAPD that didn't make it out on September 11,
2001, and to the thousands who are still sick, and who are
dying, and especially for my brother firefighter Ray Pfeiffer
of the FDNY and who is no longer with us. I promised myself to
keep fighting for my family, and for those who are sick or who
have passed and have yet to be compensated. Because one day, I
might not be here to tell my story, but there will be someone
else to follow and continue that tradition, a tradition that is
rich in history, and a tradition where we leave no one behind.
In closing, I have made countless trips to the hill with
the men and women behind me. We are simply imploring this
Committee to extend and re-fund the VCF, so that thousands of
people across our great Nation get the help that they deserve
and they have earned.
Thank you for your time today, Chairman, Ranking Member,
and the Committee. God bless you and God bless those behind me,
and God bless America.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you very much, Lieutenant.
Detective Alvarez?
TESTIMONY OF LUIS ALVAREZ
Mr. Alvarez. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is
Luis Alvarez, and I am a retired NYPD detective from the bomb
squad and a proud military veteran.
Less than 24 hours from now, I will be starting my 69th
round of chemotherapy. Yeah, you heard that correct. I should
not be here with you, but you made me come. You made me come
because I will not stand by and watch as my friends with cancer
from 9/11, like me, are valued less than anyone else because of
when they get sick or they die.
I have been lucky enough to have had 68 rounds of chemo.
Yeah, you heard me right--68 rounds. Many others haven't had
the opportunity to have five, and some have had none. Their
families would love to have the time with them that mine has
had with me.
I have been lucky enough to have the pain and suffering of
69 rounds of chemo and countless other treatments and
surgeries, it is my goal and it is my legacy to see that you do
the right thing for all 9/11 responders.
Please understand that we are not here for anything for
ourselves. We became police officers, firefighters, paramedics
to help others. We went to Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and
Shanksville to help people first and then help their families
bury someone or something. We were there with one mission, and
we left after completing that mission.
I have been to many places in this world and done many
things, but I can tell you that I did not want to be anywhere
else but Ground Zero when I was there. We were part of showing
the world that we would never back down from terrorism and that
we could all work together--no races, no colors, no politics.
Now the 9/11 illnesses have taken many of us, and we are
all worried about our children and spouses and our families if
we are not here. The VCF has done a wonderful job and treated
my family with greatest respect. My life isn't worth more than
the next responder to get cancer. My family's needs are not
worth less than any others who have already died.
This fund is not a ticket to paradise. It is there to
provide for our families when we can't. Nothing more.
You all said you would never forget. Well, I am here to
make sure that you don't. You made me come down here the day
before my 69th round of chemo, and I am going to make sure that
you never forget to take care of the 9/11 responders.
Thank you for your time.
[The statement of Mr. Alvarez follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF LUIS ALVAREZ
Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman--
My name is Luis Alvarez and I am a retired NYPD Detective
from the Bomb Squad and proud military veteran. Less than 24
hours from now I will start my 69th Round of Chemotherapy. Yes
that's correct 69th Round.
I should not be here today but YOU made me come. YOU made
me come because I will not stand by and watch as my friends
with cancer from 9/11 like me are valued less than anyone else
is because of when they get sick or die.
I have been lucky enough to have 69 rounds of chemo. Yes i
said lucky. Many others only had 5 and some had none. Their
families would love to have had the time with them that mine
has had with me. So because I have been lucky enough to have
the pain and suffering of 69 rounds of chemo and countless
other treatments, it is my goal and will be my legacy to see
that YOU do the right thing for all 9/11 responders.
Please understand that we do not want ANYTHING for
ourselves. We became police officers, fire fighters, paramedics
to help others. We went to Ground Zero, the Pentagon and
Shanksville to help people first and then to help their
families bury something. We were there together with one
mission and we left after completing the mission.
I have been to many places in this world and done many
things but I can tell you that I did not want to be anywhere
else but Ground Zero when I was there. We were part of showing
the world we would never back down from terrorism and that we
could all work together. No races, no colors and no politics.
Now the 9/11 illnesses have taken many of us and we are all
worried about our children, our spouses and our families and
what happens if we are not here. The VCF has done a wonderful
job and treated my family with great respect. But my life isn't
worth more than the next responder to get cancer. My family's
needs are not worth less than others that have already died.
This fund is not a lottery ticket to paradise. It is there
to provide for our families when we can't. Nothing more.
Those of us that were at Ground Zero, the Morgue, Fresh
Kills Landfill, the Pentagon and Shanksville WILL NEVER FORGET.
Every single member of Congress has said they will NEVER FORGET
and they say NEVER FORGET every September 11th. Its NOT one day
per year for many of us, it's ever day.
You all said you would ``Never Forget.'' Well I am here to
make sure that you don't. I am here because others cannot get
here. I would rather be back at Ground Zero again than be here,
working together.
YOU MADE ME COME HERE THE DAY BEFORE MY 69th ROUND OF CHEMO
and I am going to make sure you NEVER FORGET to take care of
the 9/11 Responders.
I am going to leave you with this . . . . I will complete
my 69th round of chemo tomorrow . . . for a moment I want you
to think about how many tens of thousands of rounds of chemo
the 9/11 first responders have completed so far and how many
tens of thousands are still come . . . .
WE DID THAT FOR YOU & WE WILL KEEP DOING IT . . . . PLEASE
DO NOT DISRESPECT US & MAKE US BEG FOR OUR FAMILIES.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Detective Alvarez.
Mr. Stewart?
TESTIMONY OF JON STEWART
Mr. Stewart. I want to thank Mr. Collins and Mr. Nadler for
putting this together, but as I sit here today, I can't help
but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the
entire process that getting healthcare and benefits for 9/11
first responders have come to: Behind me, a filled room of 9/11
first responders; and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress.
Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to
speak--to no one. It is shameful. It is an embarrassment to the
country, and it is a stain on this institution. You should be
ashamed of yourselves, for those that aren't here, but you
won't be, because accountability doesn't appear to be something
that occurs in this chamber.
We don't want to be here. Lu doesn't want to be here. None
of these people want to be here. They are not here for
themselves. They are here to continue fighting for what is
right.
Lu is going to go back for his 69th chemo. The great Ray
Pfeiffer would come down here, his body riddled with cancer and
pain to where he couldn't walk. The disrespect shown to him and
to the other lobbyists on this bill is utterly unacceptable.
I would be so angry at the latest injustice that is done to
these men and women and another business card thrown our way as
a way of shooing us away like children trick-or-treating rather
than the heroes that they are and will always be. Ray would
say, ``Calm down, Johnny. Calm down. I got all the cards I
need.'' He would tap his pocket where he kept the prayer cards
of 343 firefighters.
The official FDNY response time to 9/11 was 5 seconds. Five
seconds. That is how long it took for FDNY, for NYPD, for Port
Authority, for EMS to respond to an urgent need from the
public. Five seconds.
Hundreds died in an instant. Thousands more poured in to
continue to fight for their brothers and sisters.
The breathing problems started almost immediately, and they
were told they weren't sick, they were crazy. Then, as the
illnesses got worse and things became more apparent, ``Well,
okay, you are sick, but it is not from the pile.'' When the
science became irrefutable, ``Okay, it is the pile, but this is
a New York issue. I don't know if we have the money.''
I am sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic, but I am
angry. You should be too. They are all angry as well, and they
have every justification to be that way.
There is not a person here, there is not an empty chair on
that stage that didn't tweet out: Never forget the heroes of 9/
11, never forget their bravery, never forget what they did,
what they gave to this country.
Well, here they are. Where are they?
It would be one thing if their callous indifference and
rank hypocrisy were benign, but it is not. Your indifference
cost these men and women their most valuable commodity: Time.
It is the one thing they are running out of.
This should be flipped. This hearing should be flipped.
These men and women should be up on that stage, and Congress
should be down here answering their questions as to why this is
so damn hard and takes so damn long and why, no matter what
they get, something is always pulled back and they have to come
back.
Mr. Johnson, you made a point earlier, and it was one that
we have heard over and over again in these halls, and I
couldn't help but to answer to it--you guys are obviously
heroes, and 9/11 was a big deal, but we have a lot of stuff
here to do. We have to make sure there is money for a variety
of disasters--hurricanes and tornadoes.
This wasn't a hurricane and this wasn't a tornado. By the
way, that is your job anyway. We can't fund these programs. You
can.
Setting aside that no American in this country should face
financial ruin because of a health issue, certainly 9/11 first
responders shouldn't have to decide whether to live or to have
a place to live.
The idea that you can only give them 5 more years of the
VCF because you are not quite sure what is going to happen 5
years from now? Well, I can tell you, I am pretty sure what is
going to happen 5 years from now: More of these men and women
are going to get sick, and they are going to die.
I am awfully tired of hearing that it is a 9/11 New York
issue. Al-Qaida didn't shout ``Death to Tribeca.'' They
attacked America. These men and women and their response to it
is what brought our country back. It is what gave a reeling
Nation a solid foundation to stand back upon, to remind us of
why this country is great, of why this country is worth
fighting for. You are ignoring them and you can end it
tomorrow.
Why this bill isn't unanimous consent and a standalone
issue is beyond my comprehension. I have yet to hear a
reasonable explanation for why. It will get stuck in some
transportation bill or some appropriations bill and get sent
over to the Senate, where a certain someone from the Senate
will use it as a political football to get themselves maybe
another new import tax on petroleum. Because that is what
happened to us in 2015. We won't allow it to happen again.
Thank God for people like John Feal, thank God for people
like Ray Pfeiffer, thank God for all these people who will not
let it happen. They responded in 5 seconds. They did their jobs
with courage, grace, tenacity, humility. Eighteen years later,
do yours.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Stewart follows:]
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF JOHN STEWART
Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins and Members of the
Committee, thank you for letting me join these 9/11 responders
and survivors, these heroes, today on this panel.
Thank you for this hearing today on the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund and the legislation Never Forget the
Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund--that would fully fund the program and extend
its authorization.
You have just heard in agonizing detail why you need to Act
on this legislation.
Many talk about 9/11 and how the country responded to it,
but frankly the response on the impact of the toxins at Ground
Zero, as these men and women have outlined, has not been as
good as it should have been--to say the least.
First, the issues these heroes face is squarely the fault
of terrorists. But in the rush to get Wall Street open again
and move people back in, mistakes were made.
People--local residents, students and commuters into the
area (as well as responders)--were told that the air was safe.
But it was not. Children were brought back to school next to a
toxic pit--and then it was denied--for years--that there was a
health problem. Those who responded and worked in the pit--and
had the most exposure--were of course the first to feel the
effects. Soon residents became ill, too--with persistent coughs
or rare cancers.
So, for many years since 9/11, these responders and
residents had to walk the halls of Congress, looking to see if
``Remember 9/11'' is more than a cheap twitter slogan senators
and representatives use to nod in the direction of empathy
without having to do anything.
They had to work to get Congress to provide Health care for
these injuries from toxins; they had to work to get
compensation for the injuries so that their families would not
suffer.
First responders, firefighters, police, construction
workers, Red Cross volunteers, transit workers, FBI agents and
schoolteachers have had to go door to door down your gold- and
marble-lined hallways, because 17 years after the attacks on 9/
11, they and their families are still dealing with the impact
of the toxins at Ground Zero.
They are in every State and 433 out of 435 Congressional
Districts.
The fact that they have had continue to do this is beyond
my comprehension.
I have to say that my impression of Washington might be
changing.
Some things are getting done.
Just a few weeks ago I said that the Trump Justice
Department was doing a good job running the program, I would
never have thought that I would say it, but I did because it is
true.
The fact that this hearing is happening in this Committee
today is heartening. I understand there has been some recent
unpleasantness.
This legislation has over 300 bipartisan sponsors. 300
Members of the House agreeing to take action is pretty good.
I want to thank Ranking Member Collins for his support
today; he and Mr. Nadler have set an example that the parties
can come together. All of the support gives me some hope.
There seems to be a general understanding and agreement
that compensating the 9/11 heroes through this bill needs to
happen. I thank all of you--Republicans and Democrats--for
that.
These people can't wait--the cuts to them or their
survivors are happening now.
I know that this is going to cost a lot, but you need
figure out how to pay for it.
It is not their job to tell you how to pay for it--they did
their job.
I ask you to move this bill and get it to the floor.
Two weeks ago, I was at Ground Zero for the dedication of
the National September 11th Memorial, for the dedication of a
new memorial glade, with ragged stone monoliths that honor
those who have become ill and those that have died from 9/11
related illnesses.
The space will never bring closure to those who have lost
so much and continue to suffer so deeply, but it recognizes the
great courage and strength they gave so willingly and the price
they continue to pay.
But they need this bill. Please help them.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
We will now proceed under the 5-minute Rule with questions,
and I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
Ms. Bhattacharyya, what are some of the factors that have
led to the increase in the number of claims that the VCF has
seen over the last year? And how should these factors influence
Congress' decision-making as it determines whether and how best
to reauthorize the VCF?
Ms. Bhattacharyya. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate
the question.
There have been, I think, four major changes in the VCF
over the last few years from what Congress saw when it last
reauthorized this bill in 2015 and allocated the $7.375
billion.
The first is that the total number of claims that have been
filed has increased significantly. In the first 5 years of the
fund, from 2011 to 2016, we had just over 19,000 compensation
forms filed. In the last 2-1/2 years, we have received 28,000
more.
The reasons for those, I think, are three. The first is
that there is a significant increase in the number of claims
being filed on behalf of victims who have died as a result of
their 9/11-related conditions as we get further away from the
attacks. As the seriousness of the illnesses become more
apparent, we see more and more of these claims. At the end of
2015, we had just 600 deceased claims. We now have well over
2,000 of them.
The second thing is that the number of claimants with
cancer conditions continues to increase. We have found over
8,800 claimants eligible because of a cancer condition, and we
have made over 7,500 awards due to cancers. In 2015, we had
seen only a fraction of that number.
The third is that we are seeing a substantial increase in
claims filed by the survivor community, those who lived,
worked, or went to school in the area. In the first 5 years of
the program, survivor claims were just 14 percent of the awards
that were made. Now they account for almost 40 percent of the
claims that are being filed.
We think that is due to two things. The first are the
increase in cancer rates, and the second is that the VCF
suffered from a significant information gap in the early years
of the program. Many people in the New York area were under the
assumption that the program was only for first responders, and
as we have been able to do more outreach, as the World Trade
Center Health Program has been able to do more outreach, partly
because of the reauthorization of the bill in 2015, we have
been able to reach more people who are sick, more people who
are dying, and those claims are now coming in.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
In your written testimony, you note that, in determining
the amount of noneconomic loss for a claimant, collateral
offsets must be subtracted in full from any reduced award
amount.
In light of this, is it possible that some claimants may,
in fact, end up with no money despite the fact that they are
legally entitled to money from the VCF?
Ms. Bhattacharyya. So, yes, Congressman, that is possible.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
Dr. Moline, how many more people do you think would be at
risk of developing 9/11-related illnesses, including cancers,
in the next 25 to 50 years? Is it possible to know the exact
number of people who will develop illnesses at this point in
time?
Dr. Moline. It is not possible to know the exact number,
but based on the rates that are increasing, there are going to
be 10,000 to 20,000 more cancers, I would estimate.
Chairman Nadler. 10 thousand to 20,000 more cancers?
Dr. Moline. Yes.
Chairman Nadler. Plus, other diseases?
Dr. Moline. Plus, other diseases. As we heard about
sarcoidosis, which is a fairly rare disease but is common in
World Trade Center-exposed individuals.
We are going to see folks who have lung diseases that may
require lung transplants. There have already been a number of
individuals in the World Trade Center Health Programs that have
required lung transplants due to scarring of the lungs from the
glass and the concrete and everything else that caused a
reaction in their lungs.
Chairman Nadler. So, as an order of magnitude, you said
about 30,000, 40,000, maybe?
Dr. Moline. You know, it is hard to predict, but based on
the rates and the number of folks that were exposed, that
number is accurate.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
Ms. Nordstrom, while the terrorists who carried out the
attacks against the United States on 9/11 bear the ultimate
responsibility for all the harms caused by the attacks, you
note the Federal Government's responsibility in heightening the
risk to responders and Members of the community in the days
after the attacks.
In particular, the EPA at the time gave false assurances
that the air around Ground Zero was, quote, ``safe to
breathe,'' assurances for which the then-EPA Administrator has
since apologized and acknowledged were wrong.
As a matter of moral responsibility, do you agree that
Congress, as representatives of the American people, should
help to give some measure of compensation to victims for the
harms they have suffered that were exacerbated by the
government's own actions at the time?
Ms. Nordstrom. I think they absolutely should.
I mean, I am sitting before you as someone who was present
on 9/11 but I was not caught in the dust cloud. There is no
reason that my respiratory health or my gastrointestinal health
should have been impacted by the events of 9/11. I only have
these conditions because I was sent back. I was only sent back
because the Federal Government assured New Yorkers that the air
downtown was safe to breathe.
I was a child at the time; I was in no position to make
that decision for myself. I was not only following the wishes
of the adults in my life, but also the wishes of the
government, which at every level, seemed to assure us that we
were going to be fine in an environment where we were
surrounded by dust and debris and fires that would burn for
another 4 months.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
My time has expired.
Mr. Johnson?
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank all of you. There are too few issues today that draw
everybody in Congress together. This is one of them.
Mr. Stewart, what you said is exactly right. I would not
interpret some of the empty chairs as indifference. By virtue
of its jurisdiction, this is a Subcommittee of House Judiciary.
If it were the full committee, you would have many more Members
here. Because we are a subcommittee, sometimes the scheduling
gets crossed with other larger full Committee hearings. Some of
them are there this morning and they send their regrets.
We are going to make them all watch this tape, because the
testimony was so compelling. I have been in politics a while. I
can't recall being so moved by testimony as I was today. I
cried through most of this. All of us did. It is just
incomprehensible, what the terrorists did to our Nation and the
harm that it continues to inflict.
So, if it is any comfort to you all, we know this bill is
going to pass with an overwhelming landslide majority of the
House. It may be unanimous, or close to it as it should be.
[Applause.]
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Yeah, I will. I will.
As I said in my opening statement, I mean, I am the son of
a disabled, permanently injured first responder myself. My dad
was a fire captain. So, I get it. I know what you have been
through. That is why it was so painful to hear your personal
stories, because I have lived it myself. So, I get that.
I said in the opening remarks, just as we do with
everything, we want to do the fair and just thing, we want to
compensate everyone. But we also have a fiscal responsibility
thing that we have to be mindful of the whole time, and that is
the only question.
So, I just have one question.
Ms. Bhattacharyya, the CBO can't give us a score on this.
They won't. We are marking it up tomorrow. It is going to pass
committee. I think it is going to sail through, but has your
office done any kind of estimate on the total cost of what this
will be ultimately?
Ms. Bhattacharyya. So, Congressman, we have done
projections about what we expect the total cost would have been
had we not done reduced awards for claims expected to be filed
through December 18, 2020, which is the current sunset date. We
believe that we would need about $12 billion to compensate all
the claims expected to be filed by that date, which is about $5
billion more than we currently have.
We have not done any projections beyond that closing date.
Chairman Nadler. Would the gentleman yield for a moment?
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Sure.
Chairman Nadler. I just want to say, CBO is scoring the
bill.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. They are?
Chairman Nadler. They are scoring it. We don't know and
they don't know when they will have a score, but they are
scoring it.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. It will be after the fact, but
that is fine.
Mr. Stewart. I don't know how to do this, but can I add to
that--
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. I will yield to you.
Mr. Stewart. --if I may?
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Sure.
Mr. Stewart. Thank you for yielding.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. We have to, Jon. We have to.
Mr. Stewart. I bend the knee to you.
You know, when we talk about the price, the attacks on 9/11
have been used in our government to justify all measure of
policy and spending, to the tune of trillions of dollars.
Just recently, there was a farm bill that was $25 billion
that helps farmers that are in need based on policies that are
beyond their control. I believe our government should do that.
This is less than half of that, a third of that.
There was a corporate tax cut that was made by our
Congress.
So, it is very difficult for us to hear, ``Geez, I don't
know. You know, we are tight on money right now.'' It is a
little cruel, because it is hard for me to understand that
Exxon has a more urgent need than our first responder
community.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. No, nobody believes that, Jon. I
mean--
Mr. Stewart. But it is--
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. Yeah.
Mr. Stewart. When you talk about fiscal responsibility, you
talk about priorities. Priorities mean actions and not deeds.
The priority of words from this Congress is always that
character and patriotism are the priority and that we all must
be willing to pay the price of freedom.
This is the price. When we show up with the bill, you
cannot take a proverbial knee.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. No, you are right.
Look, I have 30 seconds left. Let me reclaim the time
because that is what we do under this procedure.
Mr. Stewart. Yes, sir.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. I agree with you. I am telling
you that the action is going to follow the rhetoric, and you
are going to get it from--
Mr. Stewart. We should have to be here.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. No, you are right. You shouldn't
have to be here. You should not have to be here.
The only question is, if we authorize it to 2090, do we
have any idea what that is going to cost. Just because we need
to know because we are doing budgeting, not because it is not
the top priority and should be, Jon.
We are just saying, to be good fiscal stewards of all this,
do we even have an idea of what that ultimate number might be.
I will leave it--that is the final question.
Ms. Bhattacharyya. You know, the problem is, I think as Dr.
Moline has described, there is no way for us to know how many
people were exposed. CBO originally estimated somewhere between
685 and 500,000 people. There is no way for us to know how many
of those exposed will actually get sick, partly because of the
latency periods associated with cancer.
So, unfortunately, we have not been able to make those
projections beyond December 18, 2020.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana. I just want to say, even if it
is--I am done, Mr. Chairman. I am out of time. Even if it is an
astronomical number, it is a responsibility of the government.
We know that. The question is, can we just figure out what that
number is, and that is it.
I will yield back. I am out of time. Thank you.
Chairman Nadler. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Let me just point out on time I will assume, the terrorists
declared war on us. When we declare war on somebody, whether it
is Japan in 1941 or Al-Qaida now, we don't have a cost
estimate. We don't have a time estimate; we don't have a cost
estimate. We just say we have to do it.
We will have some sort of a cost estimate. It may not be
accurate. Who knows? I mean, when you are talking about--but
this is part of a war that was declared on us, and we have to
do it.
The cost estimate may follow, may not. CBO will guess. They
will give us a cost. It will be a pure guess. I don't know how
accurate that will be; they don't know either. It doesn't
matter. This is part of a war, and it is part of something we
have to do, and we will do it.
The gentleman from Tenessee, Chairman of the subcommittee,
Mr. Cohen.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate each and every one of you who have worked on
this issue and worked at 9/11. Your testimony, Mr. Alvarez,
Lieutenant O'Connell, everybody here, has been touching. It has
told a story. It will be relayed to Members of Congress and to
the public through the media and through word of mouth.
This is an American tragedy. It was attack on America and
you did your jobs. Thank you.
The New York Fire Department is an institution that I think
we all in America hold in high regard. NYFD hats are everywhere
because people respect what the fire department did, going into
those towers and sacrificing their lives and continuing to go
through the debris and look for survivors.
So, it will be done. Mr. Johnson well expressed the fact
that we will pass this bill and we will get it done.
I am going to defend an institution that is sometimes not
easy to defend but is the bulwark of democracy, and that is the
United States Congress. The United States Congress is a good
body that represents people in their districts and comes
together. It doesn't always come together and express itself in
policies that I agree with, and I don't get everything I want,
but you get something. You work together.
This is a Subcommittee of a committee. My subcommittee,
every single member on my side, which is eight of us, have been
here today. Like Ms. Garcia said, I have a Financial Services
Committee. We have other committees at the same time. Some
Members are in their offices, busy with constituents, where
they may be watching on television, because this is broadcast.
The Subcommittee is only eight Members, including Mr.
Nadler, who is ex officio of all the subcommittees, on my side,
and I think five on Mr. Johnson's side. I know Mr. Collins was
here, and he is a sponsor of the bill.
Our attendance was pretty good. All these empty chairs,
that is because this is for the full of committee. It is not
because of disrespect or lack of attention to you. That is not
true. We will respond, and we will see that this is funded.
Now, Mr. Stewart, I appreciate what you have done, what you
do, and what you said. The Congress will respond, in spite of
the fact that we spent trillions of dollars on tax breaks for
corporations and the wealthiest people in this country, many of
whom are on the Upper East Side, many of whom are living in
expensive, expensive places and didn't need the tax cut. That
is where the money should be.
There is a lot of money that ought to go into research on
diseases at the National Institutes of Health to keep all of us
alive that we are not giving because we are spending it on
defense projects, some of which are not necessary, because they
are being spent for the producers of the weapons and not to
defend America.
We need budget priorities and budget sense, but it comes
together in a majority. There is an issue that Mr. Johnson
raised about fiscal responsibility. We gave it away last year
when we passed that tax bill. We gave the upper one-half of 1
percent money they didn't need--people who you were fighting to
protect and work for.
So, I am not happy with Congress with that bill. I voted
against it. I called it a tax scam, and I believe it was.
I will work for you, and I will work for people who have
sickness and disease and who fight for others and sacrifice
themselves and don't make six-figure salaries. Because we need
to look upon people who are just getting from day to day and
trying to help others, and the police and the fire departments
do that.
To Mr. Alvarez, thank you so much for being here, and God
bless you. God bless you.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Nadler. The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The first thing I want to say is that the title of the
legislation is ``Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent
Authorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.'' I am
delighted to be a strong supporter of the legislation, a
cosponsor of the legislation.
I am especially delighted, after hearing the incredibly
powerful and poignant testimony of our witnesses today, that
the word ``permanent'' is in there. Because the people in this
room today made a permanent, lifelong commitment to the
community of America when they went to rescue, to help, and to
assist. We need to make a permanent, lifelong commitment to the
people in this room--not for 5 years, not 10 years, but for as
long as we have them with us, we must be committed to them.
Something that Mr. Stewart said reminded me of this essay
that I once read by George Orwell, who contrasted patriotism
and nationalism. He said patriotism is about a true devotion to
your community, neighbors, friends, family, to the values, your
Constitution, and to the community. That is what patriotism is.
Nationalism is just about sinking your individuality into some
mythic, military hole to go to war against people from other
countries.
The people in the room today are real patriots. We have to
be patriots too, Mr. Chairman. We must pass this legislation to
demonstrate that we really do take care of our own people and
we are devoted to the community, that is America.
Maybe they were victims of misfortune the day that those 18
hijackers, most of them Saudis, pumped up with religious hatred
and extremism and zealotry, came to attack our country. So
maybe they were victims of misfortune. If today they are not
getting the healthcare that they need, they are not just
victims of misfortune, they are victims of an injustice
perpetrated by our government.
Life is hard enough on our people, with all of the
misfortunes, with the sicknesses, illnesses, injuries, and
accidents, that the government should not be compounding the
misfortunes of life with the injustice of denying people the
healthcare that they need and they should be receiving in the
richest society that ever existed at the richest moment that it
was ever in existence.
So, we are going to make this happen.
Ms. Nordstrom, I want to ask you a question. Your story is
very poignant to me. You are describing what happened to
schoolchildren who were sent back to the neighborhood when it
was no longer safe. Now you describe how many of your
classmates are coming down with asthma, cancer, and fatal
diseases. You have already lost some of them as you described
being at your 20th reunion? Is that right?
Ms. Nordstrom. Not even my 20th reunion.
Mr. Raskin. Not even.
Ms. Nordstrom. That is in a few years.
Mr. Raskin. Okay. How does America or how does the city
keep track of people in your situation? Who reached out to you?
I assume that the fire departments and the police departments
have a way of communicating with people, but who is keeping
track of people in your situation?
Ms. Nordstrom. That has been incredibly challenging. One of
the reasons that this fund closing, when it does, will really
be harmful for us is that a lot of people in my situation are
not aware that they qualify for these services.
A lot of the coverage of these services gets directed at
responders, and because of that, a lot of survivors, especially
those outside of the city--and we live nationally dispersed. I
live in California. I do not live in New York City. I haven't
for 12 years.
A lot of us don't have local advocates on this issue. There
is no local press coverage of this issue. So, there is a large
group of people that may already be sick who just aren't aware
that these services are available to them, who aren't familiar
with how to apply to them. We really rely on word of mouth
pretty extensively.
Considering that a lot of the students who were present in
Lower Manhattan during the cleanup were not actually residents
of the neighborhood--Stuyvesant has 3,000 students, and most of
them do not live in Lower Manhattan. There is a similarly large
high school who also doesn't serve a resident population a
couple blocks away. There are a lot of specialized schools in
that area.
A lot of people's parents didn't live in the area, they
weren't even informed about these risks, they weren't informed
about these services. So, we are still doing the work of
reaching out to them now.
Mr. Raskin. One final question. This is not a problem that
affects only the people in New York. There are people who have
left New York for other parts of the country. Also, we weren't
just hit in New York. We were hit down here in our area, at the
Pentagon. We were hit in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Stewart, let me come to you, since I know you have been
such a zealous advocate for the people in the room. How do we
get all of America to understand this is a national problem,
this doesn't affect just one isolated community geographically?
Mr. Stewart. I am pretty sure all of America does
understand that. I think our problem has been with the part of
America that represents America. Our problem has been with the
Congress and not with the American people. It is not like the
support for this community isn't out there. Our problem has
been that there are oftentimes just a lot of excuses.
Look, it takes an incredible amount of effort from these
men and women to come down here. I have been at this for 10
years with them. John Feal has been at it for, I don't know, 14
years. They are down here hundreds of times, spending thousands
of hours. It is not hard to convince the American people that
this is a no-brainer and a worthy cause. Our problem has been
in these chambers.
I am sorry, it is not meant as an attack on the grand
institution of democracy. It is meant as a dumbfounded shrug
of: I can't understand why this has been so hard and why every
time we take one step forward something gets withheld.
We have been to too many funerals, hospitals, and hospices.
It is going to keep going and I think we are just at the end of
the rope.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you for your advocacy.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
I excuse myself only to go to the floor of the House to
introduce legislation.
Thank you.
Chairman Nadler. I thank the gentleman.
The gentlelady from Pennsylvania, Ms. Scanlon.
Ms. Scanlon. Okay. Before I begin, I want to say thank you
to all the witnesses. Thank you for being here. Thank you for
sharing your stories.
I also want to say that I am sorry, not just for the loss
and the grief that you have endured, and those are obviously
profound, but I am sorry that you have to be here again to
plead your case to reauthorize the Victim Compensation Fund, a
decision that, as Mr. Stewart says, should be a no-brainer.
This cause is close to my heart. I have followed it over
the years, for a couple reasons. My father-in-law, Red Stewart,
was a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey for over 50 years. My
brother-in-law is a medic and a lieutenant in a Rhode Island
fire department. I have several other relatives who are sworn
police officers.
While I am not a New Yorker, as a resident of southeastern
Pennsylvania when the terrorist acts on 9/11 occurred, it felt
a little bit like we were in the eye of a hurricane, because
things were unfolding to the north of us in New York, to the
south of us in DC, and to the west of us in Shanksville.
Friends, neighbors, and relatives were impacted, whether
because they were at one of those sites or because they lost
loved ones.
The shock and horror of those events were really surpassed
by the bravery, grace, and humanity of the first responders--
many of whom who are here, some of whom we lost--and everyday
Americans as they responded to that tragedy.
So it is that humanity that demands that Congress address
this issue once and for all. That is why I am a proud cosponsor
of the bill. As a new Member of Congress, one who ran because
of anger over why things that seemed so obvious aren't getting
done, I hear you. I look forward to swift passage of permanent
reauthorization of this bill.
Just a couple quick questions.
Lieutenant O'Connell, you have already received your award
from the VCF. Why are you here to testify today about this?
Mr. O'Connell. I am here because I did receive my award and
I have seen people fall sick and die right in front of me that
haven't.
I believe we lost about 20-something people last month,
that their families--we have to sit there in front of them,
somebody who actually has a wife and three children at home,
knowing that they are taken care of. I am looking at somebody
else's wife and children, and they don't know where their
future lies. That is why I am here.
Ms. Scanlon. That is the common humanity that says we
should pass this. Thank you.
I yield back.
Chairman Nadler. I thank the gentlelady.
The other gentlelady from Pennsylvania, Ms. Dean.
Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am pleased to be here today, as heartbreaking as the
stories are. Please understand that I, too, am a new Member of
Congress. I, too, am baffled that we are even having this
conversation or that we have forced you to come here and share
your heartbreak, some of you not well, struggling for your own
health.
So don't misinterpret, if you see people coming in and out
of here. Some of us have other hearings. We are just trying to
balance and do the work of both. Do not misinterpret that we do
not care. We care. We think this is a grievous wrong, that you
have to come and ask for reauthorization. It is an absolute
insane, grievous wrong, and we get it. This new majority, I
believe, will take action.
I wanted to start with Ms. Henry.
I think you are joined by your children behind you. I see
the heartbreak in them, in the pictures they carry. I have to
tell you, I was so touched by the way you talked about your
husband and how proud he was of his work.
Ms. Henry. Thank you.
Ms. Dean. Isn't that what it is all about?
Ms. Henry. That is what it is all about.
Ms. Dean. Proud American work, cleaning trucks. You said
maybe a simple task, but not so simple at all.
Ms. Henry. No.
Ms. Dean. He gave of himself, all of himself.
Can you tell us how your family will be impacted if you
should receive only a 30 percent award for his loss?
Ms. Henry. Well, my son just turned 18 after his father
passed away. He was not there to see his 18th birthday. College
right now to be paid for him. We have other bills, our mortgage
has to be paid, and other things. He was the breadwinner for
the family. Right now, I have to stand in that position, where
whatever he was coming home with, now we do not have it. With
the little I am making; I have to be careful how I spend it now
and make ends meet for our family.
Ms. Dean. Yes. I keep thinking of what the Special Master
has to go through to try to slice this up and try to be as
equitable as possible. It should not be that way at all.
Ms. Henry. Thank you. Thank you.
Ms. Dean. Again, thank you for your family.
Ms. Henry. Thank you.
Ms. Dean. Ms. Nordstrom, I think your testimony is
particularly compelling. Can you describe more about what
notices you were given, even as young students, or your parents
were given, or your teachers were given about the status of the
health in your school?
Ms. Nordstrom. Once we were already back at the school, we
received a number of cryptic warnings. We started to get notes
home that said don't drink out of the water fountain, and we
were suddenly not allowed to leave the building for lunch,
which was a privilege that we had enjoyed before that. For some
reason, it was supposed to be okay that we walked to and from
the subway in that same air, but apparently eating lunch was
not going to be safe.
As soon as we were back, a sort of contentious discussion
broke out about whether we should be there or not. But, we
didn't hear from any agency in that discussion. That was
obviously a discussion that was happening between government
officials, parents, and teachers at the school.
So we sort of witnessed a lot of information come out late
in the game. After the parents' Administration started to
investigate things, that is, the parents Administration is who
discovered that the air quality at the barge was as bad as the
air at Ground Zero on many days. It was the parents association
that discovered that the carpeting and upholstery in our
auditorium was contaminated. It was the parents association
that pushed the board of education to finally replace the
filters in our ventilation system. That that was supposed to be
done before we went back and did not get done. All of that took
months to unfold.
So, by the end of the year, it was pretty clear that we
should have never been there. We never really received that
information at a point where we could have acted on it.
Certainly, if the government officials charged with our care
had been honest about the situation, I think it would been
appropriate to remove us from the premises.
No decision like that ever got made. Instead, you would
just see small steps, where they were going to hose down the
debris, and then, they were going to replace the carpeting in
the theater but not the seats. Small steps like that got made,
but nothing substantial until at the end of the year, looked
back and realized, oh, God, we shouldn't have been here.
Ms. Dean. It sounds like malpractice to me, that you would
have been allowed to be educated there.
Then, Mr. Alvarez--I wish I could talk to all of you. My
time is limited.
Mr. Alvarez, I just wanted to offer you my thoughts,
prayers. The strength that you show, it is extraordinary. You
represent this audience filled with first responders and
volunteers.
I was impressed by you saying you didn't want anything for
yourselves, you just wanted to do the work and help others.
Mr. Alvarez. Yes.
Ms. Dean. I guess, can you just tell me, other than the
obvious, provide full funding, permanent funding, what else
would you like us to know?
Mr. Alvarez. Well, I have been lucky because I received my
VCF payment. With my New York City Police Department disability
check, I am doing okay. There are others out there who aren't
doing okay, who don't have a disability, who count on that
money to pay their bills. It is tough on them. It is really
tough on them.
Ms. Dean. I will just close with saying, may we be guided
by your selflessness.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Nadler. Thank you.
The gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I thank the gentleman who just came into
the room.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, and to Mr. Cohen. Thank
you to the Ranking Member.
I was here on 9/11. I am reminded of the immediate work of
Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney and Peter King. My
recollection is that I stood with them in the first
introduction, along with their Senators.
I was also here on the day of the incident. Frankly, in the
United States Capitol, no one knew what was going on. All we
heard was screaming and banging on the door, you needed to get
out. What a small experience compared to those of you in this
room.
As we fled as Members out of the Capitol, no one had any
information. No BlackBerrys existed. Flip phones did not work.
As we escaped, shoes falling off, we could see the billowing
smoke from the Pentagon. A plane had hit.
Rumors abounded. It was going to hit the White House, the
State Department, and the United States Capitol. Certainly, in
that instance, the first responders that we had, the Capitol
Police, were trying to shuttle Members and leadership.
Then the stories began to come. Even here in Washington,
you wondered where your staff were, whether the buildings were
going ready to be hit.
If anyone can self-contain those experiences, just a slight
memory, there should be nothing more but clean sailing of this
legislation out of the House.
My belief, make it a suspension. What does that mean? It
goes to the floor and you pass it immediately. Then it goes to
the Senate, and there is no procedural tomfoolery. You pass it.
They can pass it on unanimous consent. Then it goes to the
President of the United States, and all he has to do is sign
that bill to give life to people who are in need. I don't see
why that cannot be our process.
As a Member of the United States Congress during that time,
I desired greatly, in the midst, to get to Ground Zero. The
time that I went, flights were not active and we took the
train.
When we actually got on the ground--I would never make the
point that I was there during rescue. I was there during
recovery. During that time, I watched with my own eyes men go
in and out and in and out, finding remains, finding loved ones,
finding their fellow comrades. I think you know I was there.
You blew a whistle, and they would come with the gurney. They
would stand in silence. They would take those remains. As they
did so, you could still see in pockets the smoke and debris.
I only want to say in this instance that I see no reason
for us to stop on this dime. We need to move.
Let me ask the Special Master, in the short time that I
have, in the claims that you have had and the overwhelming that
you have seen, can you tell me whether there is any tomfoolery
with those who have come to apply? Should we be concerned about
the need? Should we question the lieutenant or the FBI director
or the mother and wife that is grieving? Should we question any
of those? Should we look to Mr. Alvarez and be concerned about
anything that he is going through that is not real? Are you
facing the devastation of having to say ``no'' to people who
are in need?
Special Master?
Ms. Bhattacharyya. Thank you, Congresswoman.
The VCF, under the Zadroga Act, has not documented any
instance of fraud in a paid claim.
We have very robust standards and procedures in place.
Obviously, as a component of the Justice Department, we take
fraud very seriously. We work very closely with our inspector
general's office to investigate any suspicion of fraud. And we
have numerous internal procedures in place, including
independent data verification with Federal, State, and local
entities, to provide independent, third-party verification of
the data that we receive.
We have never documented any instance of fraud in a paid
claim.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I am an original cosponsor of this bill. I
want to thank the proponents, as I said. I think that is
important to put on the record.
Jon Stewart, thank you. I have watched you over the
decades.
All I should suggest: Pass the bill. Pass it out of the
Senate. Give the money. Never let these people look one moment
to see that they are not great Americans and patriots. They
deserve to be honored. Let's do it now.
I yield back.
[Applause.]
Chairman Nadler. I thank the gentlelady.
The gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Cline.
Mr. Cline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
championing this legislation.
I want to thank all our witnesses for being here, for
everyone in the audience who is here to advocate for this
legislation. It is an important bill.
I see some familiar faces in the audience who came to visit
me about a month ago to talk about this bill, to educate me, as
they have been educating all Members, about the importance of
continuing this important fund and providing for these heroes
who are here and home and the families of those who served
their country not just on September 11 but in the days, weeks,
months, years following that fateful day.
I want to thank the gentlelady for her comments. Because I
recall that day well because I, too, was in this building, as a
staffer. We weren't rushed to a safe room by the Capitol
Police, as some of the Members were. We were given guidance to
get your staff out. I was a chief of staff, and we were told,
``Get them out.''
So, however we needed to--walk, run--we evacuated, not
knowing what was going on, but seeing the smoke coming from the
Pentagon. There was talk of a bomb at the State Department.
There was talk of more planes in the sky.
We don't know where Flight 93 was headed, but we know it
was headed in this direction. For the heroes who took action
that day and said, ``let's roll,'' we are eternally grateful
for their heroism.
For those who, in the 18 years since, the tens of thousands
of men and women, first responders, relief workers, local
residents, whose testimony was so moving--and I read it last
night, but to hear it in person--Ms. Henry, I know that was
very hard for you to articulate just how important this bill is
to you and your family, but it has definitely had an impact.
It has an impact for my district as well. We have 29 from
the Sixth District of Virginia who are on the list of having
benefited from this fund.
We have to make sure that not only every year on September
11 that we never forget but every day we owe it to the men and
women here, we owe it to the men and women who sacrificed on
that day and in the weeks after to renew this fund.
So, I appreciate all the hard work. Your education had an
impact on me, not just because of my experiences on 9/11 but
also in learning about your stories, learning about the stories
of each and every first responder, each and every construction
worker--Ms. Henry, your husband. That is why I am glad to be a
cosponsor of the bill.
Ms. Henry, you spoke of your husband's pride in his work,
the job that he was doing. He knew he was a part of something
bigger, of something that was a moment in our Nation's history
that will never be forgotten. I know that he brought that home
with him at the end of his day. Can you speak to that pride
with which he did his job?
Ms. Henry. When my husband was transferred over there, I
don't think--we didn't have anything in our mind that he
would--all this debris and all these things was out there, that
we would get that. He went to work and he went to work with
pride.
I remember my son, Justin, being almost 2--almost 1 year
old, and I remember he would sit in the back of the van. Every
Saturday morning, we would drop him at work, and at about 2 or
3 o'clock, we would go back and pick him up. On a Saturday, I
don't work, so it was my pleasure to take him down there. He
was happy to work there.
I am telling you, I have the badge, that badge he had they
gave him to enter that building. He never threw it away. He
held on to that badge, and he said that is his memory. For
anybody talk about 9/11, he has that to tell them, yes, I did
work at 9/11. I wish I had that badge to show it to you right
now. That is the badge we had, that is not a badge, a pass. He
had to scan that and walk in. The pass that we have, that
reminded us.
My husband going through all his sickness, we never thought
that it was 9/11 until we met Dr. Demopoulos from the North
Shore Hospital, when they referred us to him. In talking to
him, he said, what your husband had, did he work at 9/11? Then
it came to my--my husband said no, because he didn't remember.
But going back into his pile of papers and stuff, here comes
the badge, his pass. And, like, oh, my God, he did work there.
Then we brought that--and that is how we spoke to Matt.
Matt have us right here. I am thankful, he was the first to
help us. Because my kids, they miss their dad so much. His only
daughter, we don't know if she is going to walk down the aisle
one day, what am I going to do? Maybe Justin or Kendall, his
oldest son--Kendall is not here with us--will have to step in
for their father, step in as a father.
My family, who is stepping in as father--this morning, we
woke up. We drive up last night. All we could talk about was if
he was there. He is our navigator. We don't need a navigator.
Anywhere we go, he knows. ``Make a left, make a right,'' and we
would be right there. We went to Canada, we went to Georgia for
the first time, and we were like, ``We don't know where we
are.'' And he said, ``Don't worry. Make a left. Make a right.''
There is a circle in Georgia, we keep going, and he tell me,
``When you go in a circle, take the first right, take the first
left.'' And that is what it is.
Sightseeing on a Saturday morning, he would say, ``Wake up,
wake up. Let's go out.'' ``Where are we going to?'' ``Anywhere.
Just jump in the car.'' We would just leave. That is how we
discovered Pennsylvania. That is how we went to different
places. We miss that. Right now, we want to go out, but he is
so much in our memory.
Driving up last night was not an easy task. It was not
easy. I am so happy that we have Justin--Justin just got his
driver's license. He was the one who showed him some of the
shortcuts. Although, one day he did it, he tell Justin,
``Follow the police car.'' And as Justin was, ``Oh,'' Justin
realized, I am following the police car and I am going to
somewhere. Justin checking [inaudible], all laughing. You don't
have a memory anymore. You making Justin follow the car going
to the wrong direction, and we had a good laugh at it.
So, coming up last night, Justin is driving, and we were
just thinking, if Daddy was there, he would tell you, make a
left, overtake this car, take this next--and the police won't
catch you. He would say, no, Dad, he would tell me to the stop,
the police are down there.
We really miss him. I thought my husband did enjoy working
at Ground Zero. That was his pride. He told everybody, I did
work at Ground Zero, I know what it is like.
So, we really, really, really, really, miss him.
Mr. Cline. Thank you very much.
Ms. Henry. Thank you.
Mr. Cline. I hope that we can pass this bill.
I appreciate everyone for their testimony today. I am sorry
I wasn't here for each and every one of your testimony. I have
another hearing in Education and Labor, and so we are back and
forth. To each and every one of you who was here, I appreciate
your testimony and all of the work you have done.
Let's pass this bill.
Thank you.
Chairman Nadler. I recognize the gentlelady from Texas for
a unanimous consent request.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
First, these are all good people, and I think they are all
going to be committed to you.
I wanted to ask unanimous consent to put in the record an
article that said, ``Officials Demand Permanent Funding for 9/
11 Victims Compensation to Stem `Escalating Crisis.' ''
I think we hear your cry and we are going to listen.
I ask unanimous consent to place it in the record.
Chairman Nadler. Without objection, the document will be
placed in the record.
[The information follows:]
MS. JACKSON LEE FOR THE RECORD
=======================================================================
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Nadler. This concludes today's hearing.
I want to remind people that tomorrow in this room we will
have a full Committee meeting for the purpose of marking up and
reporting to the House floor this bill tomorrow. We will move
the bill to the floor tomorrow. We will get this done as
quickly as possible. I do think we will get it done.
I want to thank our witnesses. I want to thank all the
first responders and others for attending and for all the work
that you have done over the years and for your sacrifices.
Without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative days
to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or
additional materials for the record.
Chairman Nadler. Without objection, the hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:31 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
[all]