Sept. 12, 2022 — The World Trade Center Health Program, arrange to make sure medical care for 9/11 survivors and first responders, faces a $3 billion deficit, members of Congress say.U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Republican from New York, despatched a letter to Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the Democratic chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, saying this system will be unable to just accept any new sick responders or survivors after October 2024 with out extra funding.“If Congress doesn’t shortly tackle this impending disaster, then the women and men who put their lives on the road and who survived the 9/11 terrorist assaults will lose well being protection to deal with the bodily and psychological diseases that they sustained on that fateful day,” stated the letter, which was signed by 11 different House members.The program was established in 2015 to assist firefighters, law enforcement officials, and different first responders who’ve suffered excessive charges of most cancers and different well being issues because the terror assault on Sept. 11, 2001, that introduced down the World Trade Center and unleashed mud and chemical substances on decrease Manhattan. More than 100,000 individuals are enrolled. New funding for this system is tied up in partisan wrangling.The letter says a stalled, bipartisan invoice launched in 2021, The 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act, might remedy the issue if it acquired a “full committee mark-up,” NBC News reported. But Pallone says the invoice has already handed via his committee and it’s “now the Senate’s duty to take motion and I encourage my Republican colleagues to start engaged on Senate Republicans, who’ve the ability to go this invoice,” NBC News reported.After leaving Pallone’s committee, the invoice was added to President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” laws however was killed final December, NBC News says. Garbarino says a stand-alone model of the invoice ought to be introduced again.“Fully funding this program has bipartisan assist and ought to be introduced up for a stand-alone vote immediately, not be buried in divisive partisan packages,” Garbarino advised NBC News.
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20220912/representatives_warn_of_funding_shortage_for_wtc_health_program
Representatives Warn of Funding Shortage for 9/11 Health Program
