9-11 Recovery
The September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center continue to have serious and lasting impacts on New York and its residents. From long-term health problems, to extensive job loss, to extreme difficulty making mortgage and rental payments or keeping a small business going, thousands of New Yorkers continue to deal first hand with the aftermath of the disaster.
My top priority since 9/11 has been to strengthen the federal response in each area of the recovery and to ensure that adequate federal aid is provided to the city for each specific needs that emerged from the disaster.
The sections on health, education, the economy, and security provide an overall picture of the recovery, showing progress made in several areas, while detailing a number of remaining unmet needs that require a much more adequate response. From the widest perspective, costs and losses from 9/11 total more the $80 billion by all accounts, while federal aid designated for the region remains under $20 billion and insurance payments are estimated at under $30 billion. This leaves New York shouldering the burden alone of the remaining $30 billion in losses, as well as ongoing costs for anti-terrorism security measures, unanticipated long-term health costs from the disaster, and increasing costs for rebuilding projects in lower-Manhattan.
It is far from clear that New York will ever receive anywhere near the federal aid pledged by the President in the Rose Garden of $21.4 billion on March 7, 2002, and even less clear that the region will receive additional aid to close the $30 billion gap that would remain, even if the President’s initial pledge were met (See more detail on overall federal recovery aid to New York in the economy section). When the initial pledge made by the President somehow wrongly became a ceiling, rather than a floor for what the federal government would be willing to provide, many of the specific recovery needs in New York became neglected or treated partially.
Now, the only choice has been to make each recovery need more prominent in Washington and more publicly discussed, so that vital resources are directed to meet those needs. A great deal of work remains to be done.
Legislation
02/15/07 - H.R. 1071, September 11 Family Humanitarian Relief and Patriotism Act [110th Congress]
10/20/05 - H.R.4090, Whatever It Takes To Rebuild Act, Part II
10/07/05 - H.R.4012, Community Disaster Loan Equity Act of 2005
09/21/05 - H.R.3850, Disaster Area Health and Environmental Monitoring Act of 2005
07/28/05 - H.R.3575, September 11 Family Humanitarian Relief and Patriotism Act
Documents/Reports
09/08/06 - NYC Field Hearing on 9/11 Health of Responders and Residents
- Rep. Carolyn Maloney's opening statement
- Testimony of Ms. Cynthia Bascetta, Director, Health Care, Government Accountability Office
- Testimony of Mr. Joseph Zadroga, Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ
- Testimony of Mr. Steven Centore, Flanders, NY
- Testimony of Mr. Lawrence Provost, Virginia Beach, VA
- Testimony of Dr. Robin Herbert, Co-Director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, Mt. Sinai Hospital
- Testimony of Dr. Joan Reibman, Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Medical Center; Director, Bellevue Hospital World Trade Center Health Impacts Clinic
Links
"9/11: The Forgotten Victims," the New York Daily News' Pulitzer Prize-winning series of editorials on the growing medical fallout from the World Trade Center attacks
US House of Representatives 9-11 Commission Caucus
World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program
