Copyright 2005 Newsday, Inc.
By GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert is giving Sept. 11 rescue and recovery workers something to be thankful for, reversing a decision to block $125 million in Ground Zero workers’ compensation and health care funding.
Senate leaders OK’d the expenditures earlier this month, but House Republicans, led by Hastert (R-Ill.), left the money out of a mammoth labor and health appropriations package passed last week.
But he reversed course Monday and agreed to insert the money into an upcoming emergency relief package for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, after intensive lobbying from the city delegation, fire and police officials, and representatives of Gov. George Pataki.
“This bill is not going to the president, the speaker of the House has promised me, unless it includes the $125 million,” said Rep. Vito Fossella (D-Staten Island), who received the news in a letter from Hastert yesterday.
“It’s hard to imagine that this will not happen,” said New York fire commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, whose department lost 343 officers in the attack. “It looks very, very good at this point.”
Included in the measure is $50 million in state workers’ compensation funding to deal with an expected torrent of health claims in the coming years stemming from the Twin Towers’ collapse.
About $75 million is earmarked for an array of health programs, including monitoring, screening and treating firefighters and police officers who were exposed to the toxic smoke and dust that shrouded the site for months.
The $75 million will also include funding for Mount Sinai Medical Center’s lung program, the joint federal-city World Trade Center Health Registry and additional compensation claims made by uniformed officers not covered by state programs.
On Nov. 10, Scoppetta, the FDNY’s top doctor, Daniel Prezant, and police brass lobbied House leaders to include the money in a massive domestic spending package.
At the time they were told they’d have a better chance of getting the money as part of the Katrina emergency bill, Scoppetta said.
The $125 million was originally part of the massive $20 billion federal package President George W. Bush promised the city four years ago.
The new funding must still be approved by the Senate’s GOP leadership, although members on both sides of the aisle expressed confidence the measure will pass, staff members said.
Last week, Senate leaders agreed to a similar arrangement as part of a domestic spending bill at the urging of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer. They haven’t formally taken a position on its inclusion in the Katrina bill.
While the health effects of the Sept. 11 attacks won’t be known for years, perhaps decades, health officials have already documented the rapid deterioration of lung tissue in rescue workers with prolonged exposure to the site.
Several suicides have been attributed to stresses associated with the attacks. A substance abuse and mental health hotline established after Sept. 11, still receives between 3,000 and 6,000 calls a month, officials said.