[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15888-15889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      ZADROGA ACT REAUTHORIZATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Crowley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I wish I could count how many times Members 
of Congress have come to this floor about the need to ``never forget'' 
September 11, 9/11, its victims, and our first responders.
  Members have offered resolutions, have given speeches, have come to 
the floor with shocking images that are already seared into our minds 
forever. Through it all, we hear this refrain of ``never forget.'' I 
know I will never forget. I will never forget the friends and the 
family member I lost that day.
  I have constituents who will never forget. They will never forget the 
phone call they may have received that day of a loved one lost or the 
neighbor they saw for the very last time. When I visit a firehouse in 
Woodside, in Maspeth, in Sunnyside in Queens, or in Throgs Neck in the 
Bronx, I know they will never forget.
  I also know this is not just about my constituents, not just about my 
city of New York, not just about my State of New York, but this is 
about the United States of America. I know that Americans will never 
forget the days, the weeks, the months spent, by the men and women who 
worked on the pile, trying to rescue and save lives, the recovery, and 
the eventual cleanup efforts that took place in Lower Manhattan.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, the only people I believe who seem in danger of 
forgetting are my colleagues right here in the House of 
Representatives. That is the only explanation I can give for why they 
let the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Act expire last week.
  They are forgetting the promise that this Congress, that our country, 
made to these first responders, the survivors, and other volunteers in 
the days that followed September 11.
  We all made a promise to them that they would not be left behind, 
they would not be ignored, left to fend for themselves. It took far too 
long for the Zadroga Act to become a law in the first place.
  Those are difficult years to have to keep telling 9/11 heroes: Just 
wait a little longer. We will get there. But, eventually, we did get it 
done because it was the right thing to do.
  It would be easy for my colleagues to shrug their shoulders and say 
they did their part, to think that we have wiped our hands of the 
entire issue. But the need is still there. The pain and the suffering 
are still there. So we must act and we must act now.
  A few weeks ago hundreds of first responders came to Washington, 
D.C., from all over the country--not just New York--who were affected 
by 9/11 to look Members of Congress in the eye and ask them to renew 
this worthy program. They had meetings. They held press conferences. 
They even brought a celebrity spokesperson to draw attention to their 
cause.
  Toward the end of the day, one gentleman said that he probably 
wouldn't be coming back to push Congress on this issue in the future. 
Now, I wish that none of them would have to come back because we would 
be able to tell them that we took action and permanently established 
this program.

[[Page 15889]]

  But the reason he is not going to be coming back is because he has 
stage 4 cancer, stage 4 cancer as a result of his work on the pile, 
looking for his friends. He may not be coming back at all. That is what 
this is about. That is who we are talking about.
  Every day first responders, cleanup workers, and volunteers are 
struggling with health conditions caused by the effects of the attack 
of 9/11. They have doctors' appointments, tests, treatments, 
chemotherapy.
  And they can't do it alone. That is why we put this program in place 
in the first place, to help those who can't do it alone, to not just 
thank them for their service, but to give back to them what they have 
given to us.
  These heroes should be thanked every day for what they have done. 
They deserve our thanks. They deserve to be honored and applauded and 
to have floor speech after floor speech given in their name.
  But they deserve more than just words. They deserve action by this 
House, action that we must--not just should--but we must take to ensure 
that this program will continue to be there for those who need it.
  Our heroes deserve better. We hear a lot about ``never forget.'' I 
want to suggest that we never use the term ``never forget'' here on the 
floor, ``never forget 9/11,'' until we pass a permanent extension of 
the James Zadroga Health Act.

                          ____________________