Clinton and Kennedy Annouce Date of HELP Hearing
Statement of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy Announcing Date for HELP Committee’s Hearing on 9/11 Health Illness Problems
For Immediate Release February 24, 2007
Contacts: Clinton Press Office, 202-224-2243 or press_office@clinton.senate.gov
Laura Capps/ Melissa Wagoner (Kennedy), 202-224-2633
Washington, DC – “We are pleased to announce that on March 21st the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will conduct a hearing on the health crisis facing our firefighters, police officers, paramedics, building and construction trades workers, residents, students and others who responded at Ground Zero and Fresh Kills following the September 11th attacks.
This will be the first Senate hearing of this kind.
We, along with our colleagues, Senators Schumer, Lautenberg and Menendez, introduced the 9/11 Heroes Health Improvement Act of 2007 which would authorize $1.9 billion in grants for medical and mental health monitoring and treatment for those exposed to the dust and toxins in the days, weeks, and months following the attacks.
In addition to providing an avenue for our colleagues in the Senate to better understand and address these issues, is our hope that the HELP Committee will also mark up legislation that we can get to the President’s desk and enacted into law.
Thanks to the studies conducted by the Fire Department of New York and the Mt. Sinai Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, we know that there is a connection between illnesses in many of these heroes and their presence in the impacted area.
We have a moral obligation as a nation to take care of those who took care of us, as a way of demonstrating our solidarity and commitment to them and honoring their resilience and courage in the face of the terrorist attacks.
The recent report issued by New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s World Trade Center Health Panel makes clear why there is a need for long-term, sustained federal funding, and we thank Mayor Bloomberg for agreeing to testify at this hearing.
We will do everything we can to move legislation forward and we look forward to working with the Committee to achieve our goal of making sure these individuals receive the level of federal support they need and deserve.”