It was called a “Christmas miracle,” but a last-minute compromise by Congress will provide a smaller aid package than originally envisioned to help victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the responders sickened as they worked in its smoldering ruins.
The measure passed by Congress and sent to President Barack Obama on Wednesday would provide up to $4.2 billion in new aid to survivors and responders, $2 billion less than originally proposed. Obama said he is eager to sign it.
Responders from the Philadelphia area were also eager for the long awaited package.
Barnegat Township, N.J.’s Charlie Giles, a former EMT who worked at ground zero, was emotional that he could finally get help for his various medial conditions.
“I started crying! I was in tears! The vote came like that and there was a warm feeling all over me.”
Just one week ago, the package health and compensation plan seemed doomed.
“We thought the (bill) was dead in the waters, Giles said.
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But, just in time for Christmas it was on the brink of reality.
Giles, who suffers from reduced lung capacity due to breathing in 9/11 dust and other issues due to treatments has struggled financially due to medical costs.
The package provides $1.5 billion to monitor the health of rescue and cleanup workers and treat illnesses related to ground zero. It also reopens a victims' compensation fund with $2.7 billion.
Despite the scaling back of the package, a lawyer for Sept. 11 responders, Andrew Carboy, said his clients were “ecstatic.”
“This is the recognition, compensation and health care they so richly deserved,” he said.
The bill was years in the making but believed all but dead just days ago, when Republican senators blocked it from coming to a vote. But the measure cleared a key hurdle when Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York, reached a compromise with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, reducing the bill's scope and cost.
It won unanimous consent in the Senate after the agreement was announced, and the House approved it hours later.
“The Christmas miracle we've been looking for has arrived,” Schumer and Gillibrand said in a joint statement.
Giles had a slightly different interpretation.
“People call it the Christmas miracle -- I call it ‘Miracle on Capital Hill.’”
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