For Ill WTC Workers
House Speaker Backs 9/11 Aid Fund

By ARI PAUL

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sept. 10 voiced support for a bill that would open a government fund to assist who got sick as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang A SPEAKER FOR 9/11 RESPONDERS: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Sept. 10 voiced support for legislation that would reopen the government fund for 9/11 victims, including first-responders. She toured the World Trade Center site with U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (left), Anthony Weiner (to her immediate right) and Governor Spitzer.

"I think we will come up with something that the American people will know is fair, that in conscience we have a responsibility to these people, without getting into particulars," she said during a visit to the World Trade Center site, according to the Associated Press.

Bipartisan Bill From City

Speaker Pelosi's statement came after a trio of New York legislators - Democrats Carolyn B. Maloney and Jerrold Nadler and Republican Vito Fossella - announced Sept. 7 that they would introduce the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

The proposed law, according to a statement, "would ensure that everyone exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero has a right to be medically monitored and anyone who is sick as a result has a right to treatment; expand care to the whole exposed community, including residents, area workers and students, and to the thousands of people who came from across the country to respond to the 9/11 attacks; provide compensation for economic damages and losses by reopening the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund; and build on the expertise of the Centers of Excellence (currently at the FDNY, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, Queens College, SUNY Stony Brook, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey), which are providing high-quality health care to thousands of responders."

The House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing Sept. 12 on first-responders who developed respiratory illnesses as a result of working at the World Trade Center site. Occupational Safety and Health Administration Regional Administrator Patricia Clark testified that OSHA did what it could to protect workers and ensure that employers complied with regulations. But Dr. James Melius, the administrator of the New York State Laborers' Health and Safety Trust Fund, testified that more needed to be done.

'Air Wasn't Clear'

In her questioning, U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke said that uncovering what could have been done better to protect workers after 9/11 was a high priority.

"I can tell you that the air was not clear in lower Manhattan," said Ms. Clarke, who was a City Council Member at the time. "We really have to put it in context."