[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 145 (Thursday, October 16, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12739-S12741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
        Nelson of Florida, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Corzine, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
        Sarbanes, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Lieberman, and Mr. Dodd):
  S. 1740. A bill to amend the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund 
of 2001 (Public Law 107-42; 49 U.S.C. 40101 note) to provide 
compensation for the United States Citizens who were victims of a 
terrorist-related laboratory-confirmed anthrax infection in the United 
States during the period beginning on September 13, 2001, through 
November 30, 2001, on the same basis as compensation is provided to 
victims of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes on September 11, 
2001; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank my good friend, the senior Senator 
from South Dakota and Democratic leader. I thank him for his concern 
and his work on this issue.
  Two years have passed since several anthrax letters were sent to a 
few journalists and, obviously, to public officials, killing 
inadvertent victims. These are victims whose only sin, apparently, was 
doing their jobs, and these attacks have left several other people sick 
and out of work.
  The Senate and all who work here--the Senate family--are still 
adjusting to the aftermath of these attacks 2 years later. We see it in 
new layers of security. We see it in new mail-handling procedures in 
which mail to Capitol Hill now is screened and irradiated before it is 
delivered.
  The U.S. Postal Service has had to develop and implement new safety 
measures to protect its customers and its workers. Meanwhile, nearly 
two dozen of our fellow Americans who merely came into contact with 
these anthrax-laden letters have become the forgotten victims of 
terror. Some have suffered poor health, and some have not been able to 
return to work.
  I am pleased to join with Senator Daschle and my other good friends, 
Senators Lautenberg, Nelson of Florida, Feingold, Corzine, Mikulski, 
Sarbanes, and Clinton, to introduce the Anthrax Victims Fund Fairness 
Act of 2003. This will allow these forgotten victims of terror and 
their families to seek help through the September 11 Victims 
Compensation Fund.
  They need this help to pay for medical expenses and to provide for 
themselves and their families if they have been unable to return to 
work. They are our fellow citizens, and they were unwittingly on the 
front lines when our new, shadowy struggle against terrorism began.
  In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, we learned that 
the United States was not impervious to acts of terrorism of the kinds 
that have rained death and destruction on other societies far away. The 
attacks shocked the world and left the American people with the 
terrible knowledge that we could once again become victims, targets of 
terrorists at any time.
  Only a few days after September 11, our worst fears were confirmed. 
Between September 22 and November 14, nearly two dozen Americans from 
five States and the District of Columbia became casualties of a 
sinister bioterrorism attack. Twenty-two Americans ranging in age from 
7 months to 94 years were stricken in these attacks of anthrax. It is a 
rare disease that had only afflicted a handful of Americans in the last 
century. We would ultimately learn that 11 people had been infected 
with cutaneous or skin anthrax, and 11 contracted the more serious form 
of the disease called inhalation or pulmonary anthrax. Five of our 
fellow Americans died from these attacks.
  The victims of the anthrax attacks vary in gender, race, religion, 
age, economic status, and locale. But they all have one thing in 
common: Everyone suffered. The targets were members of the news media, 
and two Members of the Senate, myself and Senator Daschle, but the 
victims--not the targets, but the victims--who suffered the most were 
employees of the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of State, news 
organizations, the Senate, and the aides, the children, and the senior 
citizens whose mail came in contact with the anthrax-laden letters.
  In the fall of 2001, I worked with Speaker Hastert, Senator Daschle, 
Senator Lott, Congressman Gephardt, Senators Hatch, Kohl, DeWine, 
Schumer, and Clinton to establish the September 11 Victims Compensation 
Fund of 2001. This fund ensured that victims of the September 11 
attacks would be eligible for compensation for the horrific losses they 
suffered. After extensive negotiations with the Bush administration, we 
established the September 11 fund to provide victims an alternative to 
what would have been a lengthy battle in court.
  Under the stewardship of Ken Feinberg, the Special Master of the 
September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, and with the supervision of the 
Department of Justice, more than 1,000 of the 3,016 families of those 
who died in the September 11 attacks and more than 1,000 of the unknown 
number who were injured have filed claims.
  The fund, which has no cap, had paid out $633 million by September 
10, 2003, with an average award of about $1.6 million for death claims. 
It is a dignified way of doing it.
  As we reach the 2-year anniversary of the anthrax attacks, Congress 
should do the same for those whose lives were harmed by these acts of 
bioterrorism

[[Page S12740]]

as we did for the victims of September 11. While we have taken 
significant steps to compensate the victims of the September 11 attacks 
and their families, no such action has been taken on behalf of the 
anthrax victims. Our legislation would remedy this.
  Our bill would extend the deadline for filing claims with the fund by 
a year and expand the eligibility to include laboratory-confirmed 
anthrax tests.
  As we reach the two-year anniversary of the anthrax attacks, Congress 
should do the same for those whose lives were harmed by these acts of 
bioterrorism as it did for the victims of September 11, 2001. While we 
have taken significant steps to compensate the victims of the September 
11 attacks and their families, no such action has been taken on behalf 
of the anthrax victims. Our legislation would remedy this.
  Our bill would extend the deadline for filing claims with the fund by 
1-year and expand the eligibility to include laboratory-confirmed 
anthrax cases.
  The Centers for Disease Control, CDC, have confirmed 18 anthrax 
infections, and an additional four are considered to have been 
confirmed through other methods. Applicants would be subject to the 
same criteria and restrictions as were set for the September 11 
victims. Eligible individuals who choose to file claims would then be 
considered by the Special Master who would make a final determination 
on level of compensation within 120 days of receiving the claim. 
Compensation will be targeted to help the neediest victims and their 
families. Any life insurance, death benefit, or other Government 
payment previously received by victims and their families would be 
taken into account, and filing a claim would preclude other civil 
remedies.
  Yesterday marked the 2-year anniversary of the opening of the letter 
that spread anthrax throughout the Hart Senate Office Building, 
exposing 31 Senate employees to a highly potent and aerosolized form of 
anthrax and shutting down the Dirksen Senate Office Building for 2 
weeks, the Hart Senate Office Building for 3 months and briefly closing 
the United States Capitol, the symbol of democracy. Our staffs were 
fortunate to receive excellent care and guidance from the Sergeant at 
Arms, the CDC, the attending physician, his dedicated staff of men and 
women and the Environmental Protection Agency, and none of the 
employees of the Senate were ultimately infected. Those days are 
indelibly etched in our memories.
  To this day--and this is the first time I have ever spoken on the 
floor about the anthrax attack. I have to be honest, it is something 
that has been on my mind, on the mind of my wife, our children, our 
families, ever since that day.
  Senator Daschle and I do not know what motivates somebody to target 
us and to endanger our staffs and so many others. Senator Daschle and I 
were the targets of the Senate letters, but we were not stricken with 
anthrax, and we have made very clear that we would not be covered by 
the terms of this legislation.
  We will never know why we were singled out, but we do know what 
happened to people who were totally innocent. The letters were not 
addressed to them as they were to us.
  Eighteen of the victims were not as fortunate as were most of us in 
the Senate family. While some did recover after receiving antibiotics, 
others have had their lives changed forever. Some are stricken with 
ailments, such as post-traumatic stress, depression and fatigue. They 
continue to suffer from the after-effects of the disease.
  One postal worker who was infected with anthrax filed a $100 million 
suit against the U.S. Postal Service in January 2003. He did not want 
to have to take his case to court, but he says he felt he had to after 
repeated attempts to receive compensation and assistance in treating 
his illness. Last month, on September 24, the widow of the first 
anthrax victim in Florida filed lawsuits seeking more than $50 million 
and alleging that insufficient security at the Army Medical Research 
Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, MD, and negligent 
actions by companies with military contracts, caused her husband's 
death. This bill would help these and other victims without forcing 
them to take their cases to the legal system.
  The perpetrator or perpetrators of these acts of terrorism remain at 
large. I have no idea who directed these letters to Senator Daschle and 
myself. The F.B.I. continues its search. These victims cannot wait 
until the search is over. They deserve help now and we owe it to them 
to provide it.
  Yesterday I joined with the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, both 
Senators from New York, and with others in introducing separate 
legislation to extend and broaden the fund's coverage to cover the 
victims of the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, the 1998 East African 
embassy attacks and the 2000 U.S.S. Cole attacks. I applaud Senator 
Specter for his leadership in this area. All Americans who have been 
victimized by acts of terrorism deserve our sympathy, our respect and 
our support.
  Our hearts went out to the victims of these acts of terrorism and to 
their loved ones. Now they also need our help, and it is my hope that 
we will do the right thing by these victims of terrorism.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, 2 years ago, a letter containing about 1 
gram of highly concentrated anthrax was opened in my office in the Hart 
Senate Office Building. Potentially deadly anthrax letters were also 
mailed, apparently by the same person or persons, to my dear friend and 
colleague, Senator Patrick Leahy, and to several news organizations. 
Two years later, all of those crimes remain unsolved.
  The anthrax attack on the Senate remains the largest bioterrorism 
attack ever on U.S. soil. Here in the Senate my staff and members of 
Senator Feingold's staff were exposed to up to 3,000 times the lethal 
dose of anthrax.
  The entire Hart Senate Office Building was closed for 3 months while 
scientists searched for a way to do something that had never been done 
before: To reclaim a building that had been badly contaminated by 
anthrax.
  We all remember those times. Coming less than 5 weeks after the 
September 11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax attacks of 2001 sometimes 
made it seem as if none of us was safe anywhere.
  As traumatic as the anthrax attacks were for the people of Capitol 
Hill, we were actually the fortunate ones. Before those deadly letters 
arrived in the Senate, they traveled through the U.S. mail where they 
left a deadly trail.
  Five innocent people died and still more innocent people suffer today 
from serious health and debilitating problems resulting from their 
exposure to the anthrax letters. All too often, they are the forgotten 
victims of the anthrax attacks on America. They are victims of 
terrorism, just as surely as are all of those who were killed or 
injured in the September 11 terrorist attacks on America. This bill 
that Senator Leahy are I are introducing today acknowledges that fact 
by allowing the victims of the anthrax attacks to participate in the 
September 11 Victims Compensation Fund.
  The rules for anthrax victims would be the same as the rules for 
victims of the September 11 attacks: Before they can receive any 
compensation from the fund, anthrax victims must first waive their 
right to file or participate in any lawsuit in State or Federal court 
for damages relating to the anthrax attacks.
  The legislation that my colleague and I are introducing today, and 
that I am very proud to cosponsor, is narrow and specific: Only persons 
who were exposed to anthrax during the attacks of 2001 and who have 
been diagnosed with a ``laboratory-confirmed anthrax infection'' may be 
compensated from the fund. A ``laboratory-confirmed'' case may include 
one in which elevated anthrax antibody levels are present, even if the 
anthrax bacteria cannot be detected. In at least one case, the anthrax 
diagnosis was made late when, after introduction of antibiotics, the 
actual bacteria was no longer detectable in the bloodstream. In such 
cases, the highly elevated anthrax antibody levels confirm both the 
exposure and the diagnosis.
  Thomas Morris and Joseph Curseen worked for the U.S. Postal Service. 
They were decent, hard-working men who pushed themselves and continued 
to go to work and church even as anthrax infections were killing them. 
They and Robert Stevens, Kathy Nguyen, and Ottilie Lundgren all lost 
their lives in the anthrax attacks.

[[Page S12741]]

Their families have suffered a devastating blow. This bill would allow 
them to receive some small compensation for their losses without having 
to suffer through the additional trauma and long delays associated with 
a lawsuit.
  Leroy Richmond, Norma Wallace, and Ernesto Blanco should be spared a 
long and difficult legal ordeal, too. They and others who suffered 
laboratory-confirmed anthrax infections as a result of the 2001 attacks 
deserve justice. They deserve the opportunity to participate in the 
same compensation fund as the victims of September 11, as long as they 
are willing to abide by the same rules. This bill gives them that 
right, that option, if they choose to exercise it.
  After that letter was opened in my office, the Senate put in place 
new mail-screening procedures to prevent another similar attack on the 
Capitol complex. Nearly 2 years later, we no longer have to worry that 
terrorism can slip in here through the mail. Some days we even forget 
about the anthrax attacks. But there are victims and victims' families 
who cannot forget. The anthrax attacks of 2001 still haunt them every 
day. This bill will not restore their strength or return their loved 
ones, but it will give them a small measure of compensation and perhaps 
a small measure of peace. It will say clearly that whether it happens 
in September, October, or any other month, terrorism is terrorism and 
here in America its victims will not have to suffer alone.
  I thank my colleague and friend, Senator Leahy, with whom I have been 
working on this bill now for nearly 2 years, for his remarkable 
commitment to this cause. I urge all of our colleagues to join us in 
seeking justice for these forgotten victims of terrorism.
                                 ______