Permanent funding fix for World Trade Center Health Program included in budget bill, Schumer says

WASHINGTON — A permanent funding fix for the World Trade Center Health Program will be included in a must-pass budget bill that Congress will vote on this week to keep the government open past the midnight Friday deadline, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

The inclusion of the funding fix in the short-term spending bill marks a major success for 9/11 first responders and survivors who have urged Congress for years to cover the growing costs of treating illnesses caused by the al-Qaida attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. 

Schumer (D-N.Y.), who promised in September to use his clout as Senate majority leader to secure the funding, said he negotiated a deal with the other three top congressional leaders to attach the funds for the health program to the bill to keep the government open through March.

"I was proud to secure billions for this program over the past few years to avoid the most immediate funding cliffs. However, running this program on a year-to-year basis is no way for our brave first responders to live," Schumer said in a statement.

"I always said that I will not rest until the victims of 9/11 know that whenever they need care — whether it be tomorrow or 15 years in the future — that care will be there for them. After years of work, I am so proud to say that day has finally arrived," he said.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the lead sponsor of the health program's legislation in the Senate, said she was excited about the permanent fix. 

"This will be enough to fund the program and to help prevent the funding shortfall that we were concerned about in the coming years. It also solves our current projected funding deficit that would have forced cuts to the program," Gillibrand told Newsday.

"The new formula, which will begin in 2026, provides substantially more funding and peace of mind for our first responders and community members who are currently participating in the program," she said. "It gives far more generous payments to the survivors and their families. It also will cover the shortfall on health care costs and it will keep pace with inflation going forward."

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), the lead House sponsor, said he worked with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), whose father suffered an injury as a firefighter, to address potential shortfalls, as well as with Gillibrand and advocates.

"We weren't sure if it was going to make the final package. But, you know, the Speaker knows how important this is to survivors all over the country, and he knows that this was a priority for me and the other New Yorkers," Garbarino told Newsday.

He said the new funding formula will be reassessed after 2040. "To have this coverage until 2040 is really going to help everybody in the program and anybody that comes in new from now on," he said. The program will continue beyond 2040, he said. It is set to expire in 2090. 

In a September press conference, Gillibrand and Garbarino projected a $2.7 billion shortfall under the current formula in the money needed because of inflation and increased participation by first responders and survivors with cancers, respiratory ailments and illnesses caused by 9/11.

The World Trade Center Health Program provides care for more than 132,000 firefighters, police and other responders, as well as residents and others in lower Manhattan, with ailments caused by toxins that spread when al-Qaida terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001.

Advocates for the program reacted with appreciation but also wariness.

Benjamin Chevat, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, said advocates are "grateful for the continuing bipartisan efforts" of Schumer, Gillibrand, Garbarino, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Johnson.

"Their work will remove the threat of impending cuts in services that would have started in 2027, with a new funding formula that provides substantially more funding for the program of over the next fifteen years," Chevat said in a statement

John Feal, of Nesconset, who has led responders to Washington to lobby lawmakers, told Newsday, "I thank Sen. Schumer for his leadership. But nothing's permanent in D.C., and we will stand guard over this piece of legislation, which is lifesaving legislation." 

For the past 15 years, New York lawmakers and first responders who rushed to help after the 9/11 attacks have tried to get Congress to fully fund the program, with ailing members making direct appeals to lawmakers in Washington.

Congress did not create the World Trade Center Health Program until nearly a decade after 9/11, and when it did in 2010, it approved it for only five years.

In 2015, Congress authorized the program to continue until 2090. But increases in costs and participation exceeded projections and outstripped funding.

In 2022, Congressional leaders failed to add $3.6 billion to cover shortfalls in the health program funding, and Schumer and Gillibrand had to strike a last-minute deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to add $1 billion for five years.

Last year, Gillibrand and Braun succeeded in adding an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to expand the health program to cover Pentagon and Shanksville military and civilian responders and add $444 million to the program.