Help the 9/11 First Responders and Heroes

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Cross-posted several places including Progressive Blue and  DailyKos.

It was looking grim for H.R. 847: James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 that had already passed in the House. Now there is some hope for a bill named after James Zadroga, an NYPD detective who died at age 34, the first police officer to die of a respiratory disease attributed to participation in rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center.

The legislation that provides $3.2 billion for long-term health care for rescue and construction workers at Ground Zero, plus another $4.2 billion in compensation for others who were exposed to the toxic dust that resulted from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in 2001 will probably have no chance in the new Congress.

So there is a big push with Ground Zero Workers lobbying in D.C. Sen, Harry Reid working to get the bill out of a committee and bring it directly to the floor. New York Senators are drumming up support. Mayor Bloomberg met with three Republican Senators today. Even Republican House members from the area are working to pass this bill.

What chance will this bill have when a group of budget-cutting Republicans are seated in the House come January? Do you remember how bad it got when the Democrats were in charge? Now the House has the bill. So it’s now or never.

Senators who back the bill must make reluctant colleagues see that the chronic sicknesses that afflict Trade Center rescue and recovery workers are a national crisis, the Zadroga bill no less than the fulfillment of a moral obligation by the government to care for people injured in an act of war.

Obviously there is a huge to do list in this final push but with as many as four Republican Senators being named as possible yes votes, this justice for heroes not just from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut but rescue workers form across the nation, stands a chance. From Mike Bloomberg’s remarks delivered today at the US Capitol.

All of our senators represent someone who answered the call to help our country in its hour of need, and now those brave men and women need our senators to answer their call for help. Many of them are already struggling with health problems. Some are battling serious illnesses; others may have to confront them in the future. And while we can’t prevent anyone from contracting an illness, we can and must ensure sustained funding to treat those who are sick, or could become sick, to continue researching World Trade Center health effects, and to re-open the Victims’ Compensation Fund so that those who worked at Ground Zero and did not show such symptoms until after the Fund’s deadline passed, can receive fair and just compensation. We owe at least that much to the firefighters, police officers, construction workers, community members, and volunteers from across America who contributed to the heroic task of saving lives, and then clearing the debris from the World Trade Center.

Can you help in the push?  Please write to or phone your Senator.