Activists Demand Bill Providing Medical Care for 9/11 Victims Be Made Permanent

By ULRIK NARCISSE

New York congressional representatives and 9/11 emergency responders on Thursday urged Congress to make permanent the bill that provides medical support for first responders and volunteers suffering from health problems directly related to the terrorist attack.

The Zadroga Act, which was signed by President Barack Obama in 2011, was set to expire at the end of the year.

“Today served it’s purpose,” said John Feal, a demolition supervisor and first responder who runs “The Feelgood Foundation” providing legal and financial help to 9/11 survivors. “We had a larger than usual crowd. The bill is going to get passed. It’s going to get extended. The $64,000 question is how long? Do we get five years, ten years, 25 years, or permanently extended? But lets not kid ourselves, giving us a permanently extended bill — there’s nothing permanent about 9/11 responders and survivors; we’re eventually going to die off. The men and women who are suffering, who stood out here in the heat, deserve a permanently extended bill and anything less is a failure.”

Joe Zadroga, father of the late New York Police officer James Zadroga after which the act was named, challenged congressional representatives who might express reservations on passing the bill.

“To those representatives in D.C. who want to know what it’s like to go through five years of hell without medical backup and proper medical care, treatment and medication, I can go down there and tell you what it’s like to watch your son die over a five year period from not having the proper care and being told he wasn’t sick when in fact we all knew he was sick,” said Zadroga. “I want to speak to you personally. I don’t want to speak to any of your representatives in your office. I want to speak to you personally.”

Another attendee chimed in:

“If you have the infrastructure in place, if this is working — and it is working — then you keep it going,” said New York firefighter and 9/11 first responder Kenny Specht. “Nobody can say that this is something that I don’t want to vote for because we tried it and it didn’t work. That’s not the case. There’s so many things that the government gets involved in that they try and it doesn’t work — this is a program that’s a success.”