NYC firefighter unions blast House decision to strip funding for 9/11 health care program

Rebecca White and John Annese, New York Daily News on Dec 22, 2024

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The city’s firefighter unions slammed Sunday a decision by lawmakers two days earlier to strip vital health care funds for 9/11 first responders from the federal budget after Elon Musk and Donald Trump nuked a stopgap spending plan, threatening a government shutdown.

“The one thing we were able to fall back on was people wouldn’t forget and they would always stand beside us,” said James Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. “Unfortunately twenty-some-odd-years later, people are starting to forget. It is unimaginable that we would have to come down here and ask Congress to do the right thing.”

After two failed votes by the GOP-led House of Representatives, Congress passed a stopgap bill to fund the government Friday, but it removed legislation that would have fully funded the World Trade Center Health Program through 2040, 9/11 advocates said.

“Part of what was left on the table was the bill that would provide the health care and the compensation for the sick and dying New York City firefighters, police officers, and first responders and civilians that were affected by what happened down there,” said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro.

Ansbro stood in front of Engine Co. 10/Ladder Co. 10 in the bitter cold, across the street from the World Trade Center.

“The incoming politicians and those returning were given a mandate to make America great again,” he said. “We know that you cannot make America great again if you leave behind those that are sick and those that are dying that answered the call on 9/11.”

The World Trade Center Health Program was created in 2011 as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. It initially was supposed to run for five years, but was extended until 2090 as more people were sickened with 9/11 illnesses.

As of September, more than 130,000 first responders and survivors have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program. Just over 7,000 people enrolled this year alone, according to the program’s website.

Republicans abandoned Wednesday a bipartisan plan to prevent a government shutdown after Musk took to his social media platform X demanding the bill fail, and Trump followed his lead. That led House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to essentially rip up the deal days before a shutdown deadline.

On Sunday, Brosi kept his criticism of the stopgap bill nonpartisan.

“This is not a Republican or Democratic problem. This is a United States problem,” he said. “We restored stability, we restored hope, and we did the job very few people were willing to do. … It is unthinkable at 23 years later that we should all be here on a 17-degree day standing outside this memorial begging for the funding to recognize the people who did the work.”

When asked if he had reached out to Trump, Ansbro said “he’s currently not in power and we did not expect that tweets from him and Elon Musk would derail the bill, but we look forward to sitting down with him and making our case and letting him know that New Yorkers expect him to remember New York.”

He added, “We’ll see you next year. … We’re not here to point a finger at anyone for what happened that day. We’re here to let everyone know that we’re not going away.”