Tag Archives: James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act

James Zadroga 9/11 Bill Passes in the Senate & the House!

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UPDATE:  Bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 2, 2011!  CNN has a piece about it here.

James Zadroga 9/11 Bill Passes in the Senate & the House!


GREAT news folks!  A retooled James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passed in the Senate this afternoon — and the House acting with amazing speed just did the same!

This is fabulous news for the 9/11 first responders who have endured so much over the last years.

Special thanks to all Girlboxing friends who drummed up what support they could to get this bill passed.

We should all send a collective THANK YOU to Jon Stewart for his amazing efforts — with a further thank you to New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who has tirelessly kept this bill alive over its many iterations.

For further information links are here and here.

Also read the ABC News piece here.

Pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Bill Update

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Pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Bill Update

Senator Gillibrand and 9/11 Bill Supporters

It it weren’t so serious the analogy to a Mets game would feel apropos.  The sort of game where your heart-is-in-your-mouth because every pitch is a game changer that can mean the difference between winning or losing.  The problem is the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is not a game, it is a very real necessity for the tens of thousands of first responders who have sought out monitoring and treatment.

So why is that the Republican Party is *still* obstructing passage?  As of this afternoon, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is continuing to affirm his intention to block the bill.  He claims that the bill is a “rush job” (how can that be when it was debated in the committee he sits on this past June?), but is also clearly griping at the price tag, which makes no sense since the Democrats have found a way to pay for it.  One would think that would be “win-win,” but no, folks with severe asthma, COPD and other serious respiratory disorders must continue to wait and wait and wait.

As my grandmother used to say, that sort of thing is a “shonda,” a shame, a shame that continues to disgrace our very understanding of what is right and what it wrong.

Meanwhile today, a group of ardent 9/11 supporters descended on capital hill to plea their case.  Let us hope that they manage to sway the seeming frozen hearts of those who oppose this bill and what it stands for.

Links to articles are here and here.

New York Senator Gillibrand’s heartfelt plea is here.

Pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Bill

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Pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Bill

Last night Jon Stewart did  something amazing — he dedicated his entire show to the cause of revealing the hypocrisy of the GOP in the Senate for failing to bring the all important James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to a vote.

The House passed the bill on September 29, 2010.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claims that the Senate has the votes to pass it, however, the GOP is blocking Reid’s ability to bring the bill to the floor.

This piece of legislation will provide funding for 9/11 first responders to receive continued health care, medical monitoring and other financial support. Without it many will fall even further behind as they not only deal with the burdens of their diminished health, but the ignominy of fighting with insurance companies and workman’s compensation to pay their medical claims.

For those who don’t know, the men and women who worked tirelessly on the “pile” for months and months at a time are sick and getting sicker with illnesses that range from severe breathing disorders to cardiac disease to soft tissue cancers.

In giving a forum to Kenny Specht, Ken George, John Devlin and Chris Baumann, four tireless first responders each of whom is sick with horrific illnesses, Jon Stewart provided airtime to people who have otherwise been denied a voice.

Implied in his forum was the plaintive question — is America really leaving its wounded behind to die?   The politicization of the 9/11 bill sure makes it seem that way.

All truly proud Americans must do no less than Jon Stewart and provide a forum to call-out the continued hypocrisy of invoking 9/11 on the one hand for the furtherance of political agendas and on the other — failing to provide the material support necessary to give aid and comfort to the dying.

It is shameful — and every blogger, everyone on a social networking site should do no less than Jon Stewart and dedicate a post to exposing the hypocrisy for what it is, a disgraceful blight on the memory of all of those who have died.

The link to the Jon Stewart show is here.