FDNY and lawmakers ask Congress to allot aid for sick rescuers
$125M, cut from House bill but retained in Senate measure, is at stake for Ground Zero responders
By TERENCE J. KIVLAN
WASHINGTON -- The FDNY officer in command in Tower 1 of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, pleaded with Congress yesterday, asking lawmakers not to take back $125 million in federal aid for sick and injured Ground Zero rescue workers.
"I can tell you that the conditions that existed there that day were horrible," said Peter Hayden, now Chief of Department, at a press conference here with Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, city lawmakers including Rep. Vito Fossella, and other officials.
Said Hayden: "The FDNY suffered a terrible wound, and that wound is still open. It has not healed, it is going to take a long time."
The incidence of respiratory problems among city firefighters has increased fivefold since Sept. 11, and 450 of those stricken, including many with severe asthma, have been forced to retire, he said.
"The people [at Ground Zero] that day did the right thing," said Hayden, a resident of Queens. "We expect the right thing to be done here."
"I don't think Congress should break its promise to the heroes of 9/11," said Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
Hayden and the others spent the remainder of the day making the case to keep the funding in meetings with House leaders of both parties. City union officials also joined the effort.
The fate of the funding will be decided over the next several weeks, as House and Senate appropriators negotiate a final 2006 budget bill for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The $125 million, part of $20 billion in federal aid approved for the city after the terror attacks, was slashed from the House version of the bill this summer at the urging of the White House.
The Bush administration said the city's failure to spend the money showed it wasn't needed. But city officials planned to hold the funds in reserve for Ground Zero first responders whose health problems become apparent over time.
The Senate, at the behest of Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), voted to include the $125 million in its version of the bill.
But the chances of full restoration of the money during the talks on the final bill "are still very iffy," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) yesterday.
Schumer argued that Congress has no right to rescind the $125 million. "This is our money. ... We are not going to let them take it away from us," he said at the press conference.
"We know people are continuing to suffer," said Mrs. Clinton of Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers. "We see them all the time."
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