NY lawmakers introduce bill that would pump $3B into federal World Trade Health Center Program

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers that include two Long Island lawmakers and advocates announced legislation on Thursday that urges Congress to fully fund the World Trade Health Center Program so it can avoid a nearly $3 billion shortfall.

The bill, introduced in the House and Senate, would fix an outdated funding formula and inject a final investment into the program to prevent a projected shortage of money beginning in 2028 and ensure survivors and first responders do not lose access to care, the lawmakers said.

“By making money for this program mandatory and permanent we will prevent any cuts to services, letting the responders and survivors know that help will always be available,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the top Senate sponsor of the legislation.

Congress created the World Trade Center Health Program in 2010, reauthorized it in 2015 and 2019, and it now provides medical treatment and monitoring for more than 132,000 responders and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and aftermath at the World Trade Center, in lower Manhattan, at Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

But the program’s administrators said the money Congress has provided so far will fall short because the number of responders and survivors who have enrolled in the WTC Health Program exceeded expectations and the cost of providing health care increased over time.

“Without this fix, the World Trade Center Health Program will have to start making cuts to services and turn away new responders and survivors by 2028,” Gillibrand said.

The bill seeks $2.97 billion for the health program, fixes the funding formula after 2034 to ensure adequate funding until the program expires in 2090, increases funding for research and data collection on 9/11 health conditions and makes technical corrections to the statute.

Gillibrand said the bill’s sponsors will try to attach it to other must-past spending bills, an approach that they have used to get piecemeal funding for the program over in the past few sessions of Congress.

“Over the last several years, we have successfully chipped away at the program’s funding shortfall – first securing $1 billion, and then an additional $676 million to keep the program afloat,” said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), the lead House sponsor of the new bill.

“With the introduction of this bill, we hope to move past the piecemeal funding solutions and fully fund 9/11 health care for all those who need it,” Garbarino said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed to push for the bills’ passage. “I will use my clout as majority leader to get this bill done once and for all,” he said.

And Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), a cosponsor of the bill, said the need to support the health program transcends the deeply partisan and divided Congress.

“We don't agree on everything, and we never will. But we agree on this. Because it's not a Democrat issue. It's not a Republican issue. It’s not a New York or New Jersey issue,” D’Esposito said. “It's a United States of America issue.”

Joining the sponsors of the bill was John Feal, a first responder from Nesconset injured on Ground Zero and a mainstay in organizing and bringing other responders to Washington to walk the halls of Congress to urge lawmakers to vote for health program funding.

“In 2019 I told my team of warriors to put down their swords and pick up their rakes, go home and plant something with a loved one,” Feal said.

But he said he is now ready to tell them “to pick up their swords again” to come to Washington to urge Congress to fully fund the program, which he called “a lifeline, a heartbeat. A pulse for tens of thousands.”

Feal said, “I implore my senators from New York and congressman from Long Island to get this piece of legislation done ASAP so I can go home and grab my rake.”