Sept. 12, 2022 -- The World Trade Center Health Program, set up to ensure medical care for 9/11 survivors and first responders, faces a $3 billion deficit, members of Congress say.

U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Republican from New York, sent a letter to Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the Democratic chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, saying the program will not be able to accept any new sick responders or survivors after October 2024 without more funding.

“If Congress does not quickly address this impending crisis, then the men and women who put their lives on the line and who survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks will lose health coverage to treat the physical and mental illnesses that they sustained on that fateful day,” said the letter, which was signed by 11 other House members.

The program was established in 2015 to help firefighters, police officers, and other first responders who have suffered high rates of cancer and other health problems since the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001, that brought down the World Trade Center and unleashed dust and chemicals on lower Manhattan. More than 100,000 people are enrolled.

New funding for the program is tied up in partisan wrangling.

The letter says a stalled, bipartisan bill introduced in 2021, The 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act, could solve the problem if it received a “full committee mark-up,” NBC News reported.

But Pallone says the bill has already passed through his committee and it’s “now the Senate’s responsibility to take action and I encourage my Republican colleagues to begin working on Senate Republicans, who have the power to pass this bill,” NBC News reported.

After leaving Pallone’s committee, the bill was added to President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation but was killed last December, NBC News says.

Garbarino says a stand-alone version of the bill should be brought back.

“Fully funding this program has bipartisan support and should be brought up for a stand-alone vote without delay, not be buried in divisive partisan packages,” Garbarino told NBC News.

World Trade Center Health Program

Letter From Rep. Andrew Garbarino 

NBC News: “A health care program for 9/11 survivors and first responders is running short of money, say members of Congress”

© 2005 - 2022 WebMD LLC. All rights reserved.

WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.