[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19753-19754]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ZADROGA BILL FUNDING

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, as we are all awaiting those who are 
negotiating a multibillion-dollar omnibus package and tax extender 
package, I wanted to come to the floor at this time of the year, as we 
approach the holidays, and say that it would be unconscionable that we 
would go home to celebrate with our families without doing everything 
we can to make sure we send a clear and unambiguous message to our 
first responders--in the name of Jim Zadroga from New Jersey, for whom 
the 9/11 bill, the Zadroga bill, is named, and all those who responded 
on that fateful day--that we will never forget what they did for our 
fellow citizens, for this Nation on September 11, the day that changed 
the world.
  We shouldn't have had to wait this long for the law to expire. At the 
same time, we are being told that we can't pass the legislation because 
we have to offset it. Yet we are talking about passing an $800 billion 
tax package, much of which goes to large corporations. I haven't heard 
any of my colleagues speak about the need to pay for this nearly 
trillion-dollar package which will deprive the Federal Treasury of 
anywhere between $800 billion and $1 trillion. Only the men and women 
who put their lives on the line on September 11 and the days that 
followed are waiting for Congress to act because we supposedly have to 
pay for the way in which we take care of their health care or the way 
in which we take care of the families, for those who lose a loved one 
as a result of the toxins and other circumstances that have led to 
their illnesses, that have led to their deaths. And unfortunately, we 
have seen a rising number of those individuals who responded on that 
fateful day who have died, including one very recently.
  I don't understand how the rules don't apply to large corporations 
that will reap billions of dollars, but somehow those rules are 
asserted when we are trying to take care of the men and women who 
responded on that fateful day of September 11. I don't understand how 
there is any moral equivalency between them. There is none, and no one 
can claim there is any.
  None of us can leave Washington for the holidays without passing this 
bill.
  I would remind my colleagues of the immortal words of Charles Dickens 
in ``A Christmas Carol'':

       I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come 
     round as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant 
     time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the 
     year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their 
     shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as 
     if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not 
     another race of creatures bound on their journeys.

  We should keep those words in mind as we approach the holidays. 
Beyond that, this isn't about the holiday spirit, it is about 
obligation. We should accept our profound, collective responsibility--
not charity but responsibility--to act on this legislation. If we do 
not, and if we continue to insist on pay-for provisions when we don't 
insist on the same provisions that would provide benefits to America's 
largest corporations to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, we 
should be ashamed of ourselves.
  I don't know which one of my colleagues can go to a September 11 
commemoration and look those first responders in the eye. I don't know 
how you do that. The reauthorization bill I have cosponsored is 
necessary to provide the security and reassurances to those first 
responders that these critical programs will last longer than just what 
the next couple of months' funding will provide. It also permanently 
lists the statute of limitations on the Victim Compensation Fund to 
provide for those first responders and their families who need access 
beyond next year and, very importantly, it exempts these key programs 
from the budget sequestration cuts. The sequestration, which I voted 
against, imposes arbitrary and capricious cuts to funding that will 
continue to provide care and

[[Page 19754]]

support for those September 11 heroes who sacrificed everything to help 
those in need on that tragic day.
  The fact is, Congress must act. I don't think we should wait for a 
public outcry before we ensure that these heroes receive the care and 
support they deserve. I don't think we should wait for a future tragedy 
to observe what we should have done. The brave men and women who rushed 
into the towers to save others did not wait or hesitate to respond. 
They did not think about themselves. They did not think about the risk. 
They valiantly responded, and we--we--should not hesitate or wait to 
respond to their needs. To do so would be absolutely shameful.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________