A bill which would provide ongoing health care coverage for first responders of the 9/11 disaster is scheduled for a vote on the floor of the House today.
Introduced as the H.R.847 - James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009, the legislation would provide
- medical monitoring and treatment benefits to eligible emergency responders and recovery and cleanup workers who responded to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 200,
- initial health evaluation, monitoring, and
- treatment benefits to residents and other building occupants and area workers who were directly impacted and adversely affected by such attacks.
Read the full history of the House legislation here
Introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-14th Dist-NY) the bill has 115 co-sponsors including a few Republicans. The legislation would cover approximately 50,000 responders and survivors of the World Trade Center attack.
It would provide federal funding for medical programs that treat 9/11 related health issues. Many first responders and survivors have developed serious medical conditions as a result of exposure to toxic dust and smoke.
Some Republicans oppose the funding of the bill
Some Republicans have expressed concern about the way the bill is to be funded. The bill is introduced as a mandatory spending bill and will run for 10 years.
Mandatory funding of legislation means the program would be automatically funded every year just as Social Security and Medicare are. It would be exempt from annual Congressional review and would not have to go through the appropriations process every year.
Republicans point out that other medical programs, such as health care for veterans, are not given this special treatment.
Will be debated under “suspension of the rules”
The bill is being brought to the House Floor today under a parliamentary procedure known as “suspension of the rules.” Under this procedure the bill can only be debated for 40 minutes and no amendments can be offered.
However, to pass the bill will require a two-thirds majority vote.
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Comments
I think this is something that shouldn't be rushed through congress, if there's something wrong or missing in this bill ammendments should be added so we can fix it.
You can always ammend ammendments of bills such as this one if need be. Too bad 90%+ of the republicans and concervatives are voting against it, just because they can and will... Why? Because they don't want the current administration to succeed with passing anything. It's almost as if they're playing a flippin game with OUR LIVES and well being, because bi-partisanship on important bills (come on, this one should obviously pass if you consider yourself a true patriot..F that, if you consider yourself a human being and know what the word compassion is) is impossible to ever even come into existance. Wait what? Politicians are souless used car salesmen that are power hungry egomaniacle pieces of doggy doo? Nevermind, I don't know what I'm talking about.
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