Sick responders ask Congress to reopen 9/11
fund
BY KRISTEN M. DAUM
WASHINGTON—After 9/11, Michael Valentin
of Ronkonkoma spent months helping with recovery efforts among
the pulverized concrete, asbestos and toxic fumes where the
World Trade Center once stood.
Six and a half years, four surgeries and two tumors later,
the now-retired New York City Police Department detective thinks
it's time for the federal government to give him a hand.
Valentin, 43, is one of an estimated 40,000 first responders
to develop chronic health problems after working at Ground
Zero, and yesterday he asked Congress to reopen a key 9/11
fund to help people like him, who face thousands of dollars
in medical bills.
"I don't have years to wait," Valentin said at a congressional hearing
yesterday. "My colleagues ... who are sick and out of work because of
their time at Ground Zero don't have years to wait."
House members expressed support for reopening the 9/11 Victim
Compensation Fund to help first responders like Valentin who
developed 9/11-related health problems after the fund expired
in 2003.
Without a federal aid program in place, as many as 40,000 victims
might sue New York City in the next several years because of
severe illnesses the victims have suffered after exposure to
toxic debris. Already, more than 10,000 claims are awaiting
settlement.
"The suffering of the living victims of 9/11 is real and cannot be ignored," said
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), who convened the hearing in hopes of moving
ahead with legislation to reopen the fund.
The original fund paid $7.1 billion in aid to 5,560 victims
of 9/11 and their families, but included tight restrictions
on who qualified as a 9/11 victim, said the fund's director,
Kenneth Feinberg.
Some experts at the hearing argued that revising the compensatory
fund to include mental diseases and delayed illnesses would
make the government vulnerable to false claims.
But New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo backed
the idea of reinstating the Victim Compensation Fund as an
alternative to paying claims through a separate $1 billion
insurance fund controlled by the city. Some victims have criticized
the city for failing to dip into its own insurance fund to
help sick workers.
Such details and questions echo the controversy Congress faced
six years ago in how it should help 9/11 victims and first
responders who became ill after cleanup efforts.
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and New York Democrat
Rep. Anthony Weiner of Brooklyn exchanged heated remarks during
yesterday's hearing, when Issa asked why "New York City
needs to come to the federal government for dollars when it's
a state issue."
Weiner called Issa's comment "patently absurd and, frankly,
insulting. ... There are people every single day, bit by bit
by bit, who are dying from that attack."
kristen.daum@newsday.com
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