[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 10, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7428-H7431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REAUTHORIZE THE ZADROGA ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York 
(Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) for 30 minutes.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow will mark 
the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11. It is a day for 
us to remember and mourn those we lost, to comfort those who suffer 
still, and to honor those who responded on that day with courage and 
determination.
  In New York on those dark days, there were thousands of anonymous 
civilians and first responders who, without a second's thought, gave 
their aid. They ran into burning buildings to save the lives of others. 
It is a day on which we lost 3,000 people, and thousands more lost 
their health in the wake of 9/11.
  In response to the health crisis that the responders and others 
faced, this Congress came together in a bipartisan way and introduced 
the Zadroga Act. The Zadroga Act would provide health care to those who 
risked their lives to save the lives of others.
  Whenever we talk about 9/11, we have to acknowledge the heroes and 
heroines of 9/11, some who lost their lives that day and those who are 
still sick and dying from the injuries and illnesses related to 9/11. 
As a Congress, we came together in groups all over America to comfort 
one another, and we stood together in our Nation's capital and vowed 
that we would never forget.
  Never forget means that we don't forget next year or today, but we 
are always there to honor and to provide the health care to those who 
risked their lives to save the lives of others that day.
  We came together this week in New York with a determination to put 
forward a reauthorization of the Zadroga Act for 25 years, which would 
continue this program, so that the certainty would be there, so that 
the services and health care would be there for the first responders, 
the victims, the residents, and others who became ill.
  That vow of never forget comes with an obligation on the part of 
Congress, which is to ensure that we as a country remember, honor, and 
care for those who are now sick and for those who may still become sick 
from exposure to the deadly toxin mixes down at 9/11, mixes of fuel and 
glass and toxins and all kinds of chemicals that they breathed that 
day.
  A major piece of that promise was the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and 
Compensation Act. This legislation established the World Trade Center 
Health Program to provide medical monitoring and treatment for 9/11-
related illnesses and reopened the September 11th Victim Compensation 
Fund to provide for economic losses and harm incurred from the 
aftermath of the attacks.
  We know that there are thousands of individuals with at least one 9/
11-related illness or injury. That includes over 2,900 people in the 
World Trade Center Health Program who have been diagnosed with cancer.
  We know that more than 800 New York Fire Department members and more 
than 550 New York Police Department personnel are struggling with 
serious 9/11-related illnesses.
  We know that we have already lost over 70 firefighters and 60 New 
York Police Department officers who have died from their 9/11-related 
illnesses since 9/11. These are people who got sick while working at 
the pile, and they have died because of their exposure.
  We must continue to provide the specialized medical monitoring and 
care these heroes received through the World Trade Center Health 
Program and continue to provide economic compensation for the terrible 
costs they have borne by caring for those who cared so much for us.
  As it stands, the Zadroga Act is set to expire in October 2015, yet 
the medical and economic crises of sick 9/11 responders and suffering 
survivors will not end in 2 years. They will only get worse over time. 
Research shows significantly higher rates of cancer among the 9/11 
population, a disease with a long latency period. Diseases can take 
decades to manifest themselves.
  That is why I plan to introduce, along with Peter King, Jerry Nadler, 
the New York delegation, and many others, legislation that would 
reauthorize the Zadroga Act's program for 25 years.
  Named after Detective Zadroga, who was the first to die from 9/11-
related injuries, many others have been helped through this important 
program. It would continue the specialized Centers of Excellence, the 
national health program, the research into new medical conditions, and 
the victims compensation fund for those who may develop 
9/11 illnesses later and suffer related economic damages.
  This is not just a New York issue, and I would like to share this map 
with my colleagues to demonstrate how widespread it is. This map shows 
that there were first responders and volunteers who came from every 
corner of America.
  They returned to their hometowns, and that is why we have Centers of 
Excellence across this country to serve the responders and the 
volunteers who came to 9/11. Many of them are now sick from the toxins 
that they were exposed to at Ground Zero.

[[Page H7429]]

  Some from the tristate area have since moved to other parts of the 
country. The map demonstrates the health programs participating, and 
participants are in 429 of the 435 congressional districts. This means 
that in almost every Member's district, there are constituents who are 
accessing or who are being treated under the Zadroga health program.
  These are your constituents who are being monitored and who may be 
receiving treatment for 9/11-related diseases.
  These Zadroga Act programs are vital to the sick and dying. They are 
vital to those to whom we said we will never forget. If we do not 
continue this program, then we are forgetting, so it is critical that 
we keep this promise and renew this program.
  Together, we can affirm what we said 13 years ago, that we will never 
forget what happened here, that we will never forget what was endured, 
and that we will never forget what we promised.
  As I said, this map illustrates that the populations in most of the 
congressional districts are being served by this.
  Today, there was a Gold Medal given to the museum in New York City 
for 
9/11, to the museum at the Pentagon for 9/11, and to the museum in 
Pennsylvania for 9/11. I urge my colleagues to visit all of these 
museums and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which, so 
far, has had more than 14 million visitors since opening in September 
of 2011.
  The museum serves as the focal point to examining the implications of 
the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of these events, and 
exploring the continuing significance of September 11, 2001. The 12,000 
artifacts, 23,000 images, and almost 2,000 oral stories displayed at 
the museum remind all of us of that tragedy and what befell and 
happened that day.
  I want to tell the story of the man with the red bandana. He has 
since been identified as an equities trader who stayed behind and tied 
a red bandana around his face and helped many, many people get rescued, 
yet he fell when the towers fell.
  It tells the brave stories of many heroes and heroines--of first 
responders and participants--who helped others in the burning buildings 
that day.
  Now the museum has a new exhibit, one that marks an important event 
in our Nation's response to 9/11. It now displays at the museum a 
uniform worn by one of the members of SEAL Team Six.
  This is the courageous team that raided Pakistan, where Osama bin 
Laden was found and killed. It is a magnificent exhibit. I am proud to 
have had a role in helping to secure this artifact, and I hope people 
will have the opportunity to visit this new exhibit.
  The story of 9/11 is not just of the suffering and of the tragedy of 
that day, but also of the response--how we came together, united and 
determined, as a Congress. We came together to fight back, and I have 
never seen us work so strongly towards a common goal.
  In 2002, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, which 
brought together 22 separate agencies and offices into a single 
Cabinet-level department in order to secure our country from threats 
such as border security and cybersecurity, as well as coordinating 
efforts to respond to emergencies.
  We also created the bipartisan 9/11 Congressional Caucus, which 
eventually led to the creation of the 9/11 Commission to investigate 
what exactly went wrong with our security and to make recommendations 
to protect our Nation against a terrorist attack.
  The Commission and its staff reviewed over 2.5 million pages of 
documents; interviewed over 1,200 individuals in 12 countries, 
including every relevant senior official of both the Clinton and George 
W. Bush administrations; and held 19 days of public hearings across the 
country, with over 160 witnesses testifying.
  This independent bipartisan Commission produced a book, the ``9/11 
Commission Report,'' which is a well-informed report that served as a 
blueprint for improving our security. The book sold more copies than 
Harry Potter, and it came out with suggestions of what we needed to do 
to make our country safer.

                              {time}  1845

  Released in August of 2004, the Commission's report diagnosed the 
national security failures that led to 9/11 and offered steps that we 
needed to take to avoid future attacks. We worked together in the 
Congress--Chris Shays and myself and other Members of Congress--to 
support all of the 9/11 Commission Caucus' recommendations and the 
Commission recommendations.
  This led to the biggest reorganization of our country's security 
system, the biggest reorganization of our government, since 1948, after 
World War II, and it created the Department of Homeland Security and 
forced all of the independent intelligence agencies to share 
information, not only on the national level but on the local level, 
with people who were working in the intelligence area for our 
protection.
  Since 9/11, former Police Commissioner Kelly has informed us that 
well over 14 attacks on the city of New York were stopped because of 
the improved intelligence and police work that came out of this 
reorganization that we passed and put in place in Congress.
  Congress established a whole Civil Liberties Oversight Board in 2004 
and later strengthened it in 2007. The Privacy and Civil Liberties 
Oversight Board was there to ensure that privacy and civil liberties 
concerns are fully considered when implementing antiterrorism laws, 
regulations, and executive branch policies.
  So the story of 9/11 is not only the suffering, the health 
challenges, but also the story of how this Congress came together to 
address the challenges to reorganize, rebuild, change our government, 
our intelligence system, and put in place many safety measures that 
have served us well and have built our country into a stronger country 
and one that is better able to address terrorist attacks.
  I am pleased to have with me now Jerrold Nadler from New York. He 
represents the 9/11 site. It is in the district that he is privileged 
to represent. He has worked long and hard not only on the 9/11 Caucus, 
on the 9/11 Commission Report, the laws that we have worked hard to put 
into law, but also the Zadroga Act, which together we worked on for 
over a decade, and yet it is now nearing a time when it will expire.
  We have to make sure that this bill is reauthorized and that never 
forget means just that, that we will never forget, and that means 
continuing the health care and compensation for those who sacrificed so 
much to help others. They were there for us. We need to be there for 
them.
  I would now like to yield to the gentleman from the great State of 
New York, Jerry Nadler.
  Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, 13 years ago, Osama bin Laden orchestrated the deadliest 
terrorist attack in American history, killing almost 3,000 people 
immediately and wounding thousands more. The attacks also created an 
environmental nightmare. Hundreds of tons of contaminants poured onto 
the streets and canyons of Manhattan and Brooklyn and other areas, 
northern New Jersey, covering responders and survivors in toxic dust.
  In the days following the attack, the Environmental Protection Agency 
of the United States Government, contrary to ample evidence, insisted 
that the air in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn was safe to breathe. 
Thousands of responders remained on the site for search, rescue, and 
cleanup efforts; and thousands of survivors returned to their homes, 
but the air was not safe to breathe. The EPA was not telling the truth.
  Now, I don't get angry at the government for the first few days, 
maybe even a week or two, encouraging people to help with the rescue 
operation when we still thought it might be a rescue operation, but 
after that 2 weeks, when people were working at the site for weeks and 
months without proper respiratory protection because the Federal 
Government was telling them that no protection was necessary because 
the air was safe to breathe, that was no longer a rescue operation. It 
was a cleanup operation. There was no one alive to be saved at that 
point, and people whose lives and health were put in danger at that 
point were put in danger in vain because the air was not safe to 
breathe, despite the assurances of the EPA.

[[Page H7430]]

  Today, more than 30,000 first responders and survivors are sick and 
in need of special care because of that. It was for those tens of 
thousands of brave, selfless, and innocent responders and survivors 
that Congress came together in 2010, after many years of struggle and 
negotiation, to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act 
in order to fulfill a moral obligation to, as Lincoln said, ``care for 
him who shall have borne the battle.''
  Today, the programs are working. Residents of all 50 States and 431 
of the 435 congressional districts receive health care through the 9/11 
health program. More than 7,800 individuals have been found eligible 
for compensation from the victim compensation fund. More than $490 
million has so far been awarded, and new applications are processed 
every day.
  But the Federal Government's duty to support those who have become 
ill in the aftermath of 9/11 and those whose illnesses have yet to 
manifest themselves--because we know that many of the illnesses and 
many of the cancers take years to show themselves, that duty is not 
done, even as the programs we authorized in 2010 are set to expire.
  We must continue to provide health care coverage to the tens of 
thousands currently enrolled in the 9/11 health program and ensure that 
no eligible individuals are denied access to the victims compensation 
fund. Our obligation will carry us far into the future.
  Thousands of individuals exposed to the toxic air on 9/11 and in the 
weeks and days following that--even those who are healthy today we know 
will face major health issues in the years to come, as latent cancers 
and other illnesses emerge. For that reason, I am proud to work with 
Representatives Maloney and King and Senators Gillibrand and Schumer to 
try to reauthorize these critical programs.
  I urge all of our colleagues to work with us in support of a 
reauthorization and to move this bill through Congress and onto the 
President's desk as soon as possible.
  Just as we stood together, as a Nation, in the days following 
September 11, 2001, just as we stood strong together in 2010 to create 
these vital programs, we must join forces again to ensure that the 
heroes of 9/11 are not abandoned when they need us most. We must pass a 
new reauthorization to sustain these programs. We must protect the 
heroes and survivors of 9/11.
  There are really two separate moral imperatives here that we must 
meet. The first is that we must show that the United States takes care 
of its own. We take care of those who fall in our battles, who are 
wounded in our struggles. And the attack on 9/11 was not an attack on 
New York City. It was not an attack on the World Trade Center. It was 
not against the Port Authority of New York. It was an attack on 
America, an attack on the United States. The particular victims 
happened to be located in New York. And we must show that we do not 
leave people behind on the battlefield, that we take care of those who 
are wounded on our behalf.
  The second moral imperative is that much of the injuries that 
continue to be felt, much of the illnesses with which people suffer, 
much of the illnesses which we don't know about but which people will 
suffer from in the years to come are the direct fault of the Federal 
Government because of its assurances, contrary to known facts at the 
time, that the air was safe to breathe, that people should go back to 
work, stay working on the pile, and go back to school. We knew better. 
Many of us said, don't believe the EPA. Don't go back to work. Don't go 
back to school. This is poison. And it was clear.

  And at first, when the EPA was saying this, there was no data to 
support their safety assurances, and they kept saying it when there was 
plenty of data to say that the air was not safe to breathe. So because 
of the false assurances by the Federal Government, many thousands of 
people relying on those assurances worked without the proper 
respiratory protection to clean up the site, worked in the area, and 
helped revive the economy at the expense of their health. And we must, 
to the extent possible, make them whole today. That is a second moral 
imperative.
  And finally, it must never be said that the United States remembers 
its heroes and honors its wounded for 13 years and then forgets about 
them. It has been 13 years. In 2 years, the 9/11 health bill will 
expire. Let it not be said that we remember for 13 years and take care 
of people for 15, and that is it. That would be a heck of an epitaph on 
a moral country.
  As we are involved in a war--which it is, unfortunately--against many 
terrorists across the world, and the President is going to address us 
on some aspects of that tonight, let us not abandon those who fell, who 
gave up their health, who continue to suffer on our behalf. It would be 
wrong. It would be immoral. It would not be worthy of the United 
States. This is a great and moral Nation. This Congress must show it by 
reauthorizing the 9/11 bill in a timely fashion.
  It is one of the things we must do in response to 9/11. There are 
many other things we must do, many other things that we have done. But 
taking care of our own wounded is one of them and one of the attributes 
of a civilized today.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership on this issue and so many other important issues.
  I would now like to recognize a leader on this issue from New York, 
Representative of Staten Island and Brooklyn, Congressman Grimm.
  Mr. GRIMM. I thank the gentlewoman from New York. And I echo the 
sentiments of my colleagues with the need to reauthorize the Zadroga 
bill in a timely fashion.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise alongside my colleagues in the New York 
delegation also to honor and commemorate the nearly 3,000 innocent 
Americans whose lives were cut short in the unspeakable attacks on our 
Nation 13 years ago. Like so many of my constituents in Staten Island 
and in Brooklyn, I have images of the most horrific sight that I have 
ever seen burned into my memory forever.
  I will never forget what it was like searching for the survivors in 
the rubble after both towers of the World Trade Center disintegrated 
into ash. I will never forget the look in the eyes of the firemen, the 
police, the construction workers as we worked side-by-side. It was a 
look of overwhelming despair.
  And though our hearts broke at the loss of those taken from us, I am 
very proud of the fact that Americans soon rallied together. We united 
around an unshakable truth that the servants of hatred and terror did 
not strike the greatest Nation on Earth at random but because we 
embodied the very freedom and liberty that they so despise.
  As Senator McCain said on the floor of the Senate the day after the 
attacks, ``Those who unleashed these attacks and those who support them 
are not our enemies alone. They are the enemies of freedom and 
independence, of justice and peace. And they wage war on the United 
States because we are and will remain the principal guarantors of 
freedom.''
  Mr. Speaker, in the Arrochar neighborhood of Staten Island lies a 
beautiful memorial dedicated to some of the 274 Staten Islanders 
murdered on 
9/11, many of whom were first responders and fallen heroes of our 
beloved FDNY and NYPD, all of whom went above and beyond the call of 
duty to bring their fellow New Yorkers to safety.
  Amidst the pictures and devotions to the fallen lies an inscription: 
``On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center was attacked by 
terrorists. From that hatred, a little piece of heaven evolved here 
called Angel's Circle.''
  It reminds us, Mr. Speaker, that from the horror and despair our 
Nation endured on 9/11 and endures in all of our hearts until this day 
comes the constant reminder of strength, our pride, and the unwavering 
heroism at the heart of the American spirit.
  May God eternally bless the victims of 9/11. May he bring peace to 
their loved ones. And may we never, ever forget the sacrifice they bore 
for our freedom.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership and for joining us tonight on this Special Order.
  Tonight is a time to remember how just 13 years ago, this entire 
country and even this fractious Congress came together. We were united 
and determined as I have ever seen this Congress before, strong in our 
resolve and ready,

[[Page H7431]]

without question, to put country before self.

                              {time}  1900

  We worked together to bring comfort to the afflicted and justice to 
the terrorists behind this attack. With bipartisan cooperation, we 
rebuilt Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and put in place a memorial in 
Pennsylvania honoring the heroes on United Flight 93 that was headed 
towards our Nation's Capitol.
  There is still much more left to do, and we need to have that same 
spirit to approach the challenges, such as the crucial Anti-Terrorism 
Risk Insurance Plan, the TRIA bill, has not been reauthorized yet, and 
the James Zadroga 
9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 needs to be reauthorized. This 
and still much more needs to be done, not some day, but now.
  Around 9/11, there is a great deal of rhetoric, but actions speak 
more than words. Let us come together, and let us get these two 
important bills and other bills done in a bipartisan way.
  We shall never forget.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________