The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which amends the Public Health Service Act to provide extra medical and other benefits to first-responders at the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, was one of the last measures Congress passed before adjourning in December.

“We will never forget the selfless courage demonstrated by the firefighters, police officers and first responders who risked their lives to save others,” Obama said in a statement. “I believe this is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks.”

The bill is named after a New York Police Department detective who worked at Ground Zero and died of a respiratory illness in 2006.

Zadroga and others were exposed to clouds of toxic fumes, dust and smoke. Many have since fallen very ill and dozens have died, with exposure to toxic chemicals at the site believed to be a major factor.

The bill faced opposition in Congress as Republicans repeatedly blocked the legislation. Some called it a New York slush fund, while others opposed increasing Washington’s already massive deficit of $1.3 trillion US.

They dropped their opposition after lawmakers struck a compromise to reduce the costs.

The $4.2 billion measure will be paid for with a fee on some foreign companies that get U.S. government procurement contracts.

Obama signed the bill from Hawaii where he is vacationing.

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More than nine years after the worst foreign attack in U.S. history, the Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to pass the $4.3 billion James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act.

It gives medical care and financial relief to tens of thousands of responders.

Many Capitol Hill insiders never believed the measure would pass, and some Republicans had threatened to try and kill it – even with the holidays arriving.

But a dramatic night of negotiations by New York lawmakers and the bill’s foes Tuesday night and into Wednesday won an 11th hour deal.

“It’s a good Christmas present for everybody,” said Joe Zadroga, the father of city detective James Zadroga who died from his ruined lungs and became the face of the legislation.

Jennifer McNamara, whose firefighter husband John died of cancer blamed on 9/11, wept when she heard the news, remembering how much he wanted his government to act for people who sacrificed.

“Working for this day was such a part of my husband’s existence, and mine,” an emotional McNamara said.

“This is something that will help take care of people, and that’s something John would be proud of,” she said. “My Christmas is good. I’m done. This is the best present I’m going to get because my husband is never coming back.”

Some first responders who fought for years to get a lethargic Congress to act were awash in relief – even though the $4.3 billion bill approved was $2 billion less than planned.

“They’re going to celebrate Christmas knowing that help is on the way,” said Ground Zero construction veteran John Feal, whose FealGood Foundation led the fight. “I never won Lotto, but that’s got to be a pretty good feeling for people.”

“Am I 100% happy? No,” Feal added. “But we’re leaving Washington with a victory. On a scale of zero to 10, I give it a seven, and zero helps nobody – seven saves lives.”

The deal, first reported on nydailynews.com, finally came together Wednesday morning after marathon negotiations between Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirtsen Gillibrand, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, and GOP Sens. Mike Enzi and Tom Coburn.

“With this vote, Congress repaid a long-overdue debt and answered the emergency calls of thousands of ailing 9/11 first responders and survivors,” Maloney said. “This bipartisan compromise is a strong program that will save lives. Thanks in great measure to the Daily News’ steadfast advocacy, help is finally here for the thousands of Americans who are suffering because of 9/11.”

“The Christmas Miracle we’ve been looking for has arrived,” Schumer and Gillibrand said in a statement.

“Over the last 24 hours, our Republican colleagues have negotiated in good faith to forge a workable final package that will protect the health of the men and women who selflessly answered our nation’s call in her hour of greatest need,” the added.

Besides cutting the price from $6.2 billion, the new bill covers up to six years, instead of 10.

And rather than create a $3.2 billion health fund, it will be $1.5 billion.

The compensation portion is $2.8 billion, some of which will be paid out relatively soon, with the final payment in six years.

Other concessions negotiators had to make to Coburn and Enzi included capping all lawyers’ fees at 10%, with no exceptions, and even stronger reporting requirements and Government Accountability Office reviews than were already in the bill.

Although people who took money from the recent 9/11 lawsuit were already accounted for in the Zadroga bill, Republicans insisted on stronger language ensuring they could not double-dip.

Their legal settlements will be subtracted from any Zadroga bill payments.

One key provision the New York side refused to budge on was cutting the medical treatment pay scale, which was set at 140% of Medicaid because of high local medical costs.

The GOPer had hoped to set rates for sick responders at less than what federal workers get for workers’ compensation claims.

The House is expected to sign off this afternoon.

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The Chamber’s aim was to keep open a tax loophole benefiting foreign corporations that the $7.4 billion bill would have closed to provide funding for the American emergency workers.

In a letter opposing the 9/11 bill, R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for Government Affairs, cautioned that closing the tax loophole would harm US trade relationships and financial markets.

“In typical fashion, the Chamber has not revealed which of its foreign members had asked them to kill the 9/11 bill,” Lee Fang of Alternet.org wrote.

The Chamber sought to defeat Democrats during this year’s election season, fought against comprehensive health reform in 2009, and pulled out all the stops to weaken Democrats’ financial reform legislation. They also helped mount corporate-funded campaigns against climate legislation and sought to weaken an anti-bribery law.

Democrats and many liberal blogs alleged that the Chamber had used money donated by foreign corporations to influence US elections, but US election law is such that the Chamber was not forced to disclose its sources.

In recent months, dozens and dozens of local business groups have distanced from or broken ties with the national Chamber in key primary states because of its partisan leanings toward Republican candidates and conservative business interests.

“We didn’t like the fact that the US Chamber was supporting particular candidates,” Greater Hudson Chamber executive VP Jerry Mayotte told The Nashua Telegraph in New Hampshire. “We don’t think it’s good business practice to do so. … We take stands on particular issues considering business, but not particular candidates.”

The Chamber spent over $600 million to influence politics since 1998. It dwarfed even the second-place American Medical Association’s $220 million in the same period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Senate was unable to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against the 9/11 first responders health care bill, even though all but one Democrat voted for it. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) voted against the bill, changing from “yes” to “no” at the last minute as a procedural tactic so that the bill could be brought up again later.

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Snowe called Capitol Police when she heard the activists were planning to arrive on the Hill and stay in senators’ offices until they had the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster of the health care bill for 9/11 responders, the New York Daily News reports.

But Collins’s office apparently sensed the bad publicity a move like that would no doubt cause, because her staffers soon offered tepid support for the bill, telling the responders it will pass if it comes onto the Senate floor.

WNBC reports:

The potentially tense situation began when a staff member for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) “informed Capitol Police yesterday that we expected a large group of people to visit the office today,” said Kevin Kelley, a spokesman for the Senator.

“The intent was never to discourage the visit, nor were Capitol police ever asked to intervene,” said Kelley. “In fact, the group had a very insightful discussion with Senator Collins’ Staff Director on the Senate Homeland Security Committee about the 9/11 health bill.”

“I’m deeply disappointed in Sen. Collins for calling the Capitol Police, but they welcomed us with open arms,” said John Feal, a demolition supervisor whose foot was crushed by metal in the World Trade Center wreckage.

“I’m more disappointed that Susan Collins is hiding behind ideology, and now the police, to stop from helping us,” he added. “And the people she called to stop us, are just like us. It’s a little ironic.”

The $7.4-billion bill, meant to help those who got sick from exposure to toxic dust and other hazards in the World Trade Center collapse, was defeated in the Senate last week when Republicans filibustered it. It went down in a test vote, 57 to 42. Republicans said they would not support any bill until the extension of the Bush tax cuts was completed.

The move drew outrage from Democrats, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and even Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart.

“The attacks of 9/11 were attacks on America,” Bloomberg said, “and we have a collective responsibility to care for the heroes — from all 50 states — who answered the call of duty, saved lives, and helped our nation recover.”

“Since when does the Republican Party make 9/11 first responders stand over in the corner with the gays and Mexicans?” Stewart joked.

With the Bush tax cuts now a presidential signature away from law, some Republican senators are signaling that they will back the measure.

According to the Daily News, staffers at both Sen. Snowe’s office and the office of Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski have said they expect the health care bill to pass.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would provide free health care and compensation payments to responders who suffered illness from exposure to toxins at the World Trade Center site.

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Republicans filibustered the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act on Thursday, blocking the start of debate on the bill because they want to see tax cuts passed first.

Manhattan Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney ripped the move as “immoral” and “truly sad.”

“Health care for Americans who are ailing because of 9/11 should not be held hostage to partisan politics,” Maloney charged.

Dozens of responders who showed up for the press conference were still in disbelief over the potentially fatal setback.

“I was a registered Republican. I have no idea what I am now,” said Ray Simons, 60, a retired FDNY ambulance worker who said he’s ill from two weeks at The Pile. “For senators to turn this down, it’s like, oh, my God, it’s the ultimate betrayal.”

“These guys, these men and women, went there looking for my wife,” said Charles Wolf, 56, whose late wife, Katherine, worked on the 97th floor of the north tower.

“They went there looking for anybody else’s husband, wife, brother, sister, daughter, mother, father, and now we want to walk away from them,” said Wolf, another Republican disgusted at his party leaders.

“I’ve got to tell you something, it is not the Republican people of this country, it is the Republican senators, it is the Republican politicians, that are against this,” he added.

GOP leaders in New York echoed that anger.

“Washington is sending a clear message to our future heroes that before they risk their lives for our country, they should first get something in writing if they want the government to take care of them after,” said Michael Grimm, congressman-elect from Staten Island.

The Senate can try to move the Zadroga bill again once it passes the $858 billion tax deal cut between the President and GOP leaders.

Several Republicans have suggested they will back the 9/11 bill after tax cuts are extended.

“It’s a long shot, but it lets us keep talking about it in a realistic way,” a Senate leadership source said.

Democrats fear the GOP will find a new objection once the tax hurdle is cleared.

Some 60 House members also are trying a last-ditch effort to attach the $7.4 billion Zadroga bill to the giant tax package.

They admitted it’s a long shot, with chances for Zadroga looking grim.

“I wouldn’t say it’s on life support – I’d say it’s not optimistic, but we still have a shot,” said Nadler.

Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) was a little more hopeful.

“It’s not necessarily as bad as it seems,” he told the Daily News. “I hope there can be some kind of agreement to bring it back up after the tax bill passes.”

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The 9/11 health bill, a version of which was approved by the House of Representatives in September, is among a handful of initiatives that Senate Democrats had been hoping to approve this year before the close of the 111th Congress. Supporters believe this is their last real opportunity to have the bill passed.

The Senate action created huge uncertainty over the future of the bill. Its proponents were working on Thursday to have the legislation inserted into a large tax-cut bill that Republicans and Democrats are trying to pass before Congress ends it current session later this month.

But whether that happens is in part up to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. The bill’s backers are counting on Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, a top Reid deputy and a supporter of the bill, to persuade Mr. Reid to go along with that idea.

Such a move might complicate passage of the tax package, which includes another provision that Democrats, including President Obama, sought in return for supporting tax cuts Republicans wanted: an extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans.

In a vote largely along party lines, the Senate rejected a procedural move by Democrats to end debate on the 9/11 health bill and bring it to an up-or-down vote; 60 yes votes were needed, but the move received only 57, with 42 votes against.

Republicans have been raising concerns about how to pay for the $7.4 billion measure, while Democrats, led by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York, have argued that the nation had a moral obligation to assist those who put their lives at risk during rescue operations at ground zero.

The bill is formally known as the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named after a New York Police Department detective who participated in the rescue efforts at ground zero. He later developed breathing complications that were common to first responders at the site, and he died in January 2006.

After the vote, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a chief sponsor of the bill in the House, urged Senate Democrats to include the 9/11 health bill in the larger tax-cut legislation to, in effect, dare Republicans to oppose it in that context.

“The Zadroga Act must be added to the tax cut bill, which is the one measure the Senate Republicans won’t leave this town without passing,” she said.

In a statement released by his office after the vote, Mr. Reid gave no indication of whether he would insert the 9/11 measure in the tax bill Republicans are seeking. But he attacked Republican senators for what he described as misplaced priorities.

“Republicans denied adequate health care to the heroes who developed illnesses from rushing into burning buildings on 9/11,” he said. “Yet they will stop at nothing to give tax breaks to millionaires and C.E.O.’s, even though they will explode our deficit and fail to create jobs. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.”

The vote was a blow to the bill’s sponsors, who mobilized a network of allies across the political spectrum to lobby on behalf of it, including the New York City police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Ms. Gillibrand, the chief sponsor in the Senate, even reached out to former President George W. Bush. But her aides say Mr. Bush did not respond to her entreaties.

In a statement, Mr. Bloomberg chastised Senate Republicans for their “wrong-headed political strategy” and called on them to allow the bill to come to the floor for a vote. “The attacks of 9/11 were attacks on America,” he said, “and we have a collective responsibility to care for the heroes — from all 50 states — who answered the call of duty, saved lives, and helped our nation recover.”

The bill calls for providing $3.2 billion over the next eight years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero. New York City would pay 10 percent of those health costs.

The bill would also set aside $4.2 billion to reopen the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to provide compensation for job and economic losses.

In addition, the bill includes a provision that would allow money from the Victim Compensation Fund to be paid to any eligible claimant who receives a payment under the settlement of lawsuits that 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers recently reached with the city. Now, those who receive a settlement from the city are limited in how much compensation they can get from the fund, according to the bill’s sponsors.

There are nearly 60,000 people enrolled in health monitoring and treatment programs related to the 9/11 attacks, according to the sponsors of the bill. The federal government provides the bulk of the money for those programs.

If the bill is not adopted by the current Congress, its supporters will have start over again next year. With Republicans set to take over the House, passing the bill in that chamber will be extremely difficult, the bill’s supporters say. That is a large part of the reason backers of the measure are pleading with Senate leaders to get it passed by this Congress.

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See also:

GOP Opposes Medical Funding for 9/11 Victims
I was under the impression that the emergency teams who responded to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 are considered American heroes.

The 9/11 Responder Bill … What Is It?
So, what actually happened with the squashed bill giving aid to 9/11 first responders and why were Rep. Anthony Weiner and Rep. Peter King arguing over it?: Our Insiders wanted to know what was in it and why it was killed, here is what our Brainroom came up with . . .

Playing Politics with 9/11
Why House Democrats Forced a 2/3 Majority Vote on 9/11 Responders Bill
Last night in the House, a bill to provide $7.4 billion in funding over 10 years to those whose health was affected by the World Trade Center attack got 255 votes–well above a simple majority. But the bill failed because Democrats suspended the rules, which denied the Republicans the chance to offer any amendments and required a 2/3 majority to pass.

Congress rejects Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
Congress turned thumbs down on the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act on Thursday night, raising doubts it will ever pass.  Most Republicans refused to back the measure, calling it a “slush fund,” and saying it was another example of Democratic overreach and an “insatiable” appetite for taxpayers’ money.

9/11 Health Bill’s Defeat is a ‘Disgrace,’ Say First Responders, Local Pols
Allan Tannenbaum, a TriBeCa resident who documented first responder illnesses through a project called “9/11: Still Killing,” said he was “disgusted” with both parities.  “I’m wondering what kind of country we live in where we can’t come together and do the right thing,” Tannenbaum said. “Congress passed huge bailouts of billions of dollars to banks, and yet they can’t find a way to provide health maintenance and monitoring?”

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