What to Know
- The House has overwhelmingly approved a bill ensuring that a victims compensation fund for the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money
- The 402-12 vote Friday sends the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to call it up before the August recess
- Vote comes after death of ex-NYPD Det. Luis Alvarez, who gained recognition for spending dying days pleading for extension of benefits
The House has overwhelmingly approved a bill ensuring that a victims compensation fund for the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money.
The 402-12 vote Friday sends the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to call it up before the August recess.
Lawmakers from both parties hailed the House vote, which comes a month after comedian Jon Stewart sharply criticized Congress for failing to act. Stewart, a longtime advocate for 9/11 responders, told lawmakers they were showing "disrespect" to first responders now suffering from respiratory ailments and other illnesses as a result of their recovery work at the former World Trade Center site in New York City.
Stewart said Friday that replenishing the victims fund was "necessary, urgent and morally right."
The vote comes almost two weeks after the death of former NYPD Det. Luis Alvarez.
Alvarez gained national recognition for spending his dying days pleading with Congress to extend the benefits for his fellow 9/11 first responders.
The day after he gave that emotional testimony in June, along with Stewart, Alvarez’s liver shut down and doctors told him there was nothing more they could do to treat the cancer he got 16 years after saving anyone he could from the heaping piles death and destruction. The House Judiciary Committee later voted unanimously in support of a bill that would extend funding through fiscal year 2090.
