James Zadroga was a New York City police officer who died of a respiratory disease in 2006 that has been attributed to his participation in rescue and recovery at the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks. He was the first NYPD officer whose death was attributed to exposure to his contact with toxic chemicals at Ground Zero.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was intended to provide health monitoring and financial aid to sick 9/11 workers, but the original bill did not pass. However, in September 2010 the U.S. House did pass a new version, while in the senate, Democrats were unable to break a Republican filibuster against the bill.
The Republicans were concerned about paying for the $7.4 billion bill in an appropriate way, and about creating an expansive new healthcare entitlement program.
Comedian Jon Stewart of The Daily Show fought hard and used his celebrity and show to bring awareness of the Republican filibuster on the Zadroga bill to the public.
The bill finally received Congressional approval on December 22, 2010, and was signed by President Obama on January 2, 2011.
The bill allocated $4.2 billion to provide testing and treatment for people who worked in response and recovery operations as well as for other survivors of the 9/11 attacks.
It expired on October 1, 2015.
And, of course, because of the pledges over the years and the declarations of support and eternal gratitude to those who responded to the 9/11 attacks, the renewal of the act should be a simple matter of a supportive vote.
But this is America where money for wars is supported without question, but health care is a problem, so major political hurdles have kept it from being reauthorized.
Senator Mitch McConnell seems the biggest of these.
Heart diseases Abnormal blood pressure Liver or kidney tadalafil cheapest price http://raindogscine.com/?attachment_id=335 issues. It also is important for bone health, muscle function sildenafil cost and normal digestion. The safest dose of Sildamax generic levitra online is 100mg within 24 hours. A free viagra prescription large number of people can often make when buying Kamagra online. As Jon Stewart said as a guest on the Daily Show just this week,
“Sen. Mitch McConnell doesn’t give a shit about anything but politics. He is the key to getting this done, and so far he has been an enormous obstacle — unwilling to move the bill forward for purely political reasons.”
Last week Stewart and a group of 9/11 responders went to the Capitol and visited the offices of senators in hopes of spurring them to pass a permanent extension of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a version of the bill would be attached to the government funding bill being worked on this week.
What is confusing is that McConnell had no problem backing similar treatment programs for nuclear and coal workers, except for the fact that those workers are from his state and he needs their votes.
Regarding this, Stewart told the Huffington Post,
“Honestly, if there were some sort of principled, pious reason, if he could say to me, ‘Oh, we just don’t do those types of bills, even for an exceptional case like 9/11,’ I guess I would at least have to respect whatever principle, however ignorant I may find it to be. But that’s not the case.”
“We’re seeing, from everything going on in the world, just how important the first responders are in this country,” Stewart said.
He considers this trip to DC to have been “a visit with the last responders, the worst responders.”
When he appeared on the Daily Show he was accompanied by the same panel of first responders who had appeared with him when he supported the original bill. Problem was that this time only one member of the original four was able to be there. The others had died, or were too sick.
By Friday we should see if the Senate does the right thing.