About the Law
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was originally passed by Congress at the end of 2010 and signed into law by President Obama after years of advocacy by 9/11 responders, survivors, their families, Unions, advocates and dedicated legislators.
Below is information about the passage of the original law, the 2015 reauthorization and the 2019 reauthorization of the Victim Compensation Fund.
2010 Passage of Original James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
In 2009, what would become the final version of the proposed law, HR. 847, S. 1334, was sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Peter King (R-NY) with 112 other members of the House. In the Senate, it was led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) along with 9 other sponsors. Learn more.
2015 Reauthorization
On April 14th 2015, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 1786 and in the United States Senate, S. 928 , and the “James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act of 2015”, to renew and make permanent the Health and Compensation programs that were helping thousands of injured and ill 9/11 Responders and Survivors. Learn more.
2019 Reauthorization of Victim Compensation Fund
With the announcement by the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in September of 2018, that because of the lack of resources, the Fund would have to plan to cut pending claims of injured and ill 9/11 responders and survivors by 50% and future claims by 70%, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10), and Peter T. King (R-NY-2) in 2019 introduced the bipartisan legislation “Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act” , HR.1327/S.546. Learn more.
2021-2022 Effort to Deal with Impending Budget Shortfall for World Trade Center Health Program
With the World Trade Center Health Program facing an impending budget shortfall starting in 2025, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10), and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-2) introduced in August 2021, the bipartisan legislation, “9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act” (HR.4965/S. 2683). Its purpose was to ensure the adequate funding for the World Trade Center Health Program so it can continue to provide medical treatment and monitoring to injured and ill 9/11 responders and survivors.
While the legislation did not pass, Senator Gillibrand and Schumer did manage to include in the end of the year Omnibus a billion dollars in additional funding and authorizations for the WTC health Program to create a new research cohort to better study the impact on the health of survivors, especially those that were children at the time. Learn more.