There were many familiar faces in the crowd assembled at a press conference on Sept. 8 to urge the reauthorization of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act - a bill that provided medical care for sick and injured 9/11 responders and community members and a related bill providing financial compensation for people who became ill because of toxins from Ground Zero.

After years of struggle, the bill passed Congress on Dec. 22, 2010, good for five years, not for 10 as its backers had requested. Now, the fight will resume. The World Trade Center Health Program will expire in October 2015 and the Compensation Fund in October 2016 unless Congress provides more money.

"It's almost like a reunion to be here," Rep. Carolyn Maloney observed of the crowd at the press conference. "This is the team that worked for more than a decade to pass this bill."

Sen. Gillibrand with Reps. King, Maloney and Nadler.

Packed into the plaza in front of 7 World Trade Center were most of the politicians who had fought for the Zadroga bill in Congress - U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Maloney, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Peter King. Also present were union leaders, representatives of the police and fire departments and people who were critical to the bill's passing - John Feal, a first responder who lost half his foot at the World Trade Center site and who brought busload after busload of people to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the bill, and Catherine McVay Hughes, now chairperson of Community Board 1, who was on those buses for trip after trip.

James Zadroga's father, Joseph, was at the press conference. James Zadroga, for whom the bill was named, was the first police officer whose death was attributed to his service at Ground Zero.

Joseph Zadroga rode those buses to Washington. In the crowd were some of the people who rode the buses with him. They hadn't seen each other in almost four years, but after what they had been through together, they hadn't forgotten each other.

But some people were missing. Some have died. Some were too ill to be there. "Heroes who walked the halls of Congress simply to force their government to do the right thing, are gone," said Sen. Gillibrand.

There are now more than 30,000 Sept. 11 responders and survivors who have an illness or injury caused by the attacks or their aftermath. Most of them have more than one illness. It has now been definitively established that more than 60 kinds of cancer were caused by 9/11 toxins.

Among the 2,900 people diagnosed with 9/11-related cancer, more than 800 are members of the New York Fire Department and more than 550 are with the NYPD. To date, more than 70 firefighters and 60 NYPD officers have died from 9/11-related illnesses.

In the crowd at the press conference was a man in a wheelchair holding a sign saying "I am 9/11 clean-up worker." There were people with respirators, people leaning on canes.

The people who are being helped by the James Zadroga Act come from every state and live in 431 of the 435 Congressional districts in the country. "Too many of them face a health crisis that will far outlast the program's expiration date," said Gillibrand. The backers of reauthorization are asking that the Act be extended for 25 years to see these people through their possible life spans.

New to the fight this year was Mayor Bill de Blasio. He referred to his own father and to his wife's father getting assistance from the GI Bill when they returned from serving in the military during World War II. "There was no question," he said. "Why is there a question for the brave men and women who served under the most adverse circumstances after an attack on our country? Why is there a question about them getting what they deserve?  There should be no question. There should be no debate. This should be simply a march to action. Let's get our Congress to do the right thing and support our heroes."

After the press conference, Rep. Maloney provided an answer to the mayor's question.

"There's a big competition over funding," she said. "People from other states want to spend the money on other things. We have to remind them of the sacrifice and that they have to take care of people."

She added that if there should be another attack on this country, people would be reluctant to step in and help as they did after 9/11 if they thought it would cost them their health and possibly their lives without the government backing them up and providing for their families.

Later this month, Senators Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York will introduce the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act in the Senate, and Reps. Maloney, Nadler and King will introduce it in the House.

For a video of Rep. Jerrold Nadler explaining why he thinks that reauthorizing the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is a "moral imperative," click here. 

(This is the second article based on an interview with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer that took place in her office on Sept. 3. The first article in Downtown Post NYC, 9/5/14, dealt with Brewer's views on the South Street Seaport.)

When Gale Brewer announced that she was going to go to Israel, she got emails, pro and con but was undeterred by negative remarks. She has been to Israel many times starting in 1994 when she arrived three days after the Allenby Bridge between the East and West Banks of the Jordan River opened. She was also there in December 2002 during the second intifada, when she and those with whom she was traveling were the only guests at the 233-room King David Hotel.

She left for Israel on Aug. 18 and returned to New York City on Aug. 20. Brewer, who is not Jewish, paid for the trip herself.

The trip was arranged by COJO (the West Side Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations) and Face of Israel. Her purpose, she said, was "to be supportive of COJO and the Israeli people." She said that the trip would give her "a better sense of the toll" of the current crisis and that she would actively encourage New Yorkers to continue to schedule trips to Israel. 

Brewer's day and a half in Israel included a meeting with Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, a visit to an iron dome installation in the desert and meetings with economists and politicians. It also included a middle-of-the-night retreat to the stairwell of the King David hotel when a warning siren sounded.

"Most people slept through it because it wasn't right there," she said. "There were only around six people in the stairwell in our area. Of course, some of the rabbis ran into their friends so they spent an hour talking in the stairwell - people they haven't seen in years - somebody from Paris, somebody from London. It was fascinating for me."

Mayor Barkat told Brewer that he wants Jerusalem "to feel like the regular, everyday Jerusalem and not victimized. He wants economic development to continue. It's like 9/11 when we wanted New York to have the economy buzzing again."

There are difficulties - and not just because of missiles from Gaza. An economist with the Bank of Israel told Brewer that Israel is challenged because of having no trading partners in the immediate vicinity. "That makes it difficult for Israel to be stable economically," Brewer said. "It makes it hard to be a thriving country. They have to find other markets." 

 

Bits & Bytes

Downtown bulletin board

For the seventh year, Motorexpo returns to Brookfield Place with a display of late model cars. The exhibit is open through Friday, Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)