[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5030-S5031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.


                     9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is the morning after. This is a happy 
morning after because the 9/11 bill passed. Now it is on its way to the 
President's desk. My understanding is he is certain to sign it, and our 
first responders can breathe a sigh of relief. It is wonderful.
  I am filled with gratitude for a lot of people, above all for those 
who rushed to the Towers, those patriots, those brave men and women who 
put American freedom above their own safety, defending us at a time 
when we were under attack.
  God bless them. God bless those who have passed from the illnesses. 
God bless those who are suffering from the illnesses. God bless those 
who will get illnesses yet unknown and their families, their friends, 
their units--fire, police, port authority, the military, you name 
it. Yesterday, I met an FBI agent--I had not met her before--who was 
there and who was suffering from cancer. God bless them all.

  First and foremost, I want to thank so many people who made this 
happen, beginning with Senator Gillibrand, a champion for this issue 
like no other. She was constantly here on the floor buttonholing 
people--and she is persistent, those of us who know her--over and over 
again until she got names like Cotton and Cruz to support our bill, 
which was a big turning point. I also thank her legislative director, 
Brooke Jamison. She was sort of the quiet force behind all this, and I 
thank her as well as the rest of the Gillibrand staff.
  To our cosponsors in the Senate, every one of them, thank you.
  I thank the leaders in the House--Congressmembers Maloney, Nadler, 
King, and so many others.
  Then there were the great advocates, Jon Stewart and John Feal. Man 
oh man, they were the heart and soul of this operation, and they kept 
going and going and going until they succeeded--one of my great joys.
  My great sadness was meeting some of the widows. I knew the widow of 
Ray Pfeifer, for whom the bill is named. I met briefly the family of 
Detective Alvarez while at his wake, and that was a sad thing. But a 
happy thing was seeing the genuine smiles on the faces of Stewart and 
particularly Feal, who doesn't smile that much, but now he can. That 
was a joy.
  Suzy Ballantyne and Ben Chevat were just relentless.
  What about all the labor leaders and unions--and by the way, 
construction workers were another group who rushed to the Towers and 
suffered many losses; let's not forget them--the labor leaders and 
unions that organized with us every step of the way: the UFA, the UFOA, 
the NYPD and the Port Authority unions, the PBA, the DEA, the teachers, 
the laborers, AFL-CIO, AFGE, AFSCME, and so many more.

[[Page S5031]]

The union movement always protects its workers. We need them to be 
stronger in America. That is one of the reasons income is going up to 
the top and not going to the middle class anymore--because we don't 
have as strong unions as we should. But the unions, when they get 
behind something, God bless them.
  Finally, I need to thank the first responders who came here 
themselves and who delayed cancer treatments to testify at hearings, 
who wheeled the Halls of Congress in their wheelchairs to chase down 
legislators, who gifted lawmakers their NYPD badges and FDNY patches--
the sacred totems of their service--to remind those public servants to 
do the right thing. Many are no longer with us: James Zadroga, Luis 
Alvarez, and my dear friend Ray Pfeifer. Wherever they may now be, let 
them breathe a final sigh of relief knowing their friends are cared for 
and the job is well done.