Bush, Congress snatch funds from injured 9/11 workers

Now, nearly four years later, the administration and Congress are preparing to take back $125 million previously appropriated to aid workers who suffered disabling injuries in the rescue and recovery operation at the World Trade Center site.

Last Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee beat back by a vote of 35 to 28 an attempt by legislators from New York to pass an amendment that would have left the funding in place.

The congressional committee decided to let New York state keep a separate portion of workers compensation funding totaling $44 million. Initially, the Bush administration had demanded the return of that money as well as part of its fiscal 2006 budget plan. The Republican congressional leadership, however, backed off after it became clear that the funds would have to be pried back from the surviving families of 9/11 victims.

Congress had approved a total package of $175 million to assist the state of New York in compensating emergency responders, volunteers and construction workers injured at “ground zero.” A report issued last year by the Government Accounting Office concluded that the $44 million had not been used as specified in this legislation.

The New York State government had funneled it through a crime victims program and a state insurance fund covering public employees as the fastest means to provide aid. In part, the money went to pay for medical and funeral expenses.

The administration and its supporters argue that the $125 million should be returned because the New York state government’s failure to spend money for two years proves it doesn’t need it.

“The need is not as great as originally feared and those funds are no longer needed,” declared Bush budget spokesman Scott Milburn.

“I don’t understand why they are sitting on the money if they’ve got the money,” said Congressman Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who sits on the Appropriations Committee.

The principal reason that more money has not been spent by the state of New York is that employers—including government agencies—are systematically opposing workers compensation claims filed by those who suffered injury and illness related to conditions at the Trade Center site. In addition, many others, knowing the long delays, harassment and humiliation routinely inflicted on workers seeking such compensation, don’t even bother to apply.

The state has confirmed that more than 10,000 people have filed workers compensation claims, but will not say how many of these applications have been denied.

A document released last week, however, indicates that 9/11-related claims are 10 times more likely to be challenged by employers than other claims. The Injured Workers Pharmacy, a firm that supplies medicine to workers waiting for decisions on compensation claims, provided the figure. The company, which negotiates payments with insurance companies and charges a fee after claims are confirmed, said that it had been forced to turn away 9/11 rescue and recovery workers because so many of their claims had been blocked.

Moreover, there is every indication that the $125 million is wholly inadequate to cover the long-term needs of workers who suffered injury to both their bodies and minds on September 11 and in the months that followed.

Approximately 40,000 participated directly in the initial rescue efforts following the attacks and in the protracted cleanup operation conducted in the smoldering ruins of the toppled twin towers. Another 100,000 people worked in the immediate area, with many of them exposed to the toxic cloud of dust and debris—including asbestos, lead and mercury—that enveloped lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/jun2005/wtc-j22.shtml