9/11 Health Bill Passes In Congress

KEITH HERBERT
Newsday

WASHINGTON - A long-stalled bill that provides health care for 9/11 first-responders passed Congress on Wednesday, virtually assuring that the measure will become law.
President Barack Obama has said he would sign the bill.

The Senate passage came after legislators reached an agreement to reduce the cost of the measure to $4.3 billion compared to the $6.2-billion cost in a previous version. In another concession to Republican opponents, there would be a five-year window for submitting claims and six years to pay them out.

About two hours after the bill cleared the Senate, the House passed it, 206-60.
Members of the FealGood Foundation, a Long Island nonprofit that assists 9/11 first responders, emerged from the Senate gallery after the unanimous consent and shared hugs and tears.

"We did it!" Wendy Flammia of Miller Place said into her cell phone.

The group headed to a news conference to announce the details of the agreement. There were high-fives and chants of "USA! USA!"

"I'm elated that the 9/11 community got this bill passed," said John Feal, of Nesconset. He said it was "the best Christmas I've ever known."

In a telephone interview, Rafael Orozco, a retired New York Police Department detective from Central Islip, said he was "absolutely" pleased with the Senate's action.

"We're not just talking about 10,000 in the lawsuit," said Orozco, who suffers from respiratory problems and gastroesophageal reflux disease and has a hard time sleeping as a result of his time working at Ground Zero. "We're talking about over 70,000 people who came and responded from all over the country. So anything that is passed is a good thing. Now there's hope. The next Congress may review it and decide to add a little. But if you don't pass it before the end of this session, we get nothing."

New York Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer worked to get the bill passed.

"The Christmas Miracle we've been looking for has arrived," Schumer and Gillibrand said in a statement. "This has been a long process, but we are now on the cusp of the victory these heroes deserve."

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who had opposed the bill as an unnecessary entitlement, said the deal would "lower costs dramatically.

"Every American recognizes the heroism of the 9/11 first responders, but it is not compassionate to help one group while robbing future generations of opportunity," Coburn said in a statement.

Schumer and other supporters of the bill had expressed concern that Republican senators who had criticized the legislation could seek up to 30 hours of debate.

"You can count it," Schumer said earlier Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "It goes into Christmas and we won't have enough senators to vote.

"The only thing standing in our way is people who may want to run out the clock," Schumer said. ". . . We all know that if it doesn't happen now, it's very unlikely that it will ever happen again."

On Tuesday, members of the FealGood Foundation had traveled by bus to Washington to lobby senators who do not support the legislation. They also attended a news conference with Schumer and Gillibrand.

"I have a lot of faith," said Ann Marie Baumann, of Lindenhurst, whose husband suffers from respiratory problems after working on the Ground Zero pile.

Baumann's husband, Christopher, formerly of the NYPD, was among about 60 people Tuesday who visited the offices of lawmakers who oppose the legislation.

"It has taken nine years to get to this point," Gillibrand said Tuesday. "It's my hope that the men and women here today are at the finish line."

Supporters of the legislation have had to wait for the attention of the Senate, which is debating the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Schumer and Gillibrand said Monday that a compromise had been reached with Republicans who opposed the 9/11 bill over its cost and the use of a corporate tax to pay for it.

A Republican filibuster had stalled the bill 12 days ago.

A change in the legislation shifted the cost of funding the responders' health care and compensation from a corporate tax to an excise tax on government purchase of material overseas.

Also, the cost of the legislation has been reduced from $7.4 billion to $6.2 billion over 10 years.

Schumer and Gillibrand have said they were confident they had the 60 votes needed to pass the bill in the Senate.

If signed by Obama, the legislation would grant a decade of health care to those made sick by their work at Ground Zero.

Democrats led the bill's push through the House in September. The vote was 268 to 160, with 17 GOP members supporting it.

The legislation is named for a police detective who worked on rescue efforts at Ground Zero. He died in January 2006 after suffering breathing complications similar to those of many Ground Zero first-responders.

"The Senate recognized that 9/11 was not just an attack on New York but an attack on America, and that those who responded and died or succumbed to illness afterward did so in service to the nation," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.
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Staff writers Ridgely Ochs and Gary Dymski contributed to this story.

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