On This Day of Remembrance, We Must Honor Our Heroes By Addressing The Trump Administration’s Draining Of The 9/11 Fund For First Responders

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By Nikki Slusher

Today is one of somber across the nation. It was 19 years ago on this day that America was viciously attacked and for a second the world stood still. We all watched as reports showed terrorists hijack four airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field which would’ve been the White House if the brave passengers on United Flight 93 hadn’t taken over and sacrificed themselves for this country. Many of us remember where we were and watching in horror while New Yorkers worked effortlessly to save their fellow Americans.

For most, it hit home for us. The World Trade Center housed numerous businesses, a restaurant, and the area surrounding the buildings was hotels, apartments, and businesses. People were visiting the city that never sleeps either on vacation or for business, or just going through the motions of the usual NYC hustle and bustle. So, when the catastrophic events began to unfold there were many families trying to contact loved ones in the city that day to make sure they were safe. I know this because it happened to my family.

I remember that day vividly. It was a normal morning, beautiful outside. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and our morning prayers as I was attending a private Baptist school. A little after 9 A.M. it was obvious something big had happened. My teacher turned on the classroom TV, immediately putting on ABC News. Footage was showing both towers of the World Trade Center on fire with large smoke clouds emitting from the flames. We continued watching the TV in my first-grade classroom while my teacher was in hysterics and being consoled by other faculty. Her son worked in the Pentagon, and she was frantically trying to get in touch with him.

We were given coloring sheets and crayons with one of the other teachers watching both us and her own class walking back and forth between open doors. Around noon an office administrator called my name to be released for the day over the classroom speaker. When we got into the car my mom explained that my uncle was working construction on a building directly across from the WTC. No one had heard from him, no one knew where he was. The WTC buildings had collapsed, and my family was beginning to prepare for the fact that he may have not made it. Late that night my aunt received a call – he was alive and safe. He was still in the subway station beneath the Towers with thousands of others huddled together who were, confused, scared, and covered in dust and debris. Out of every person down there, one man had a cell phone that had signal. That man let every single person make a call to their families to let them know they were alive. To this day, we do not know who he was, but his act of kindness will always be remembered.

It is non-debatable that the men and women who responded that September morning sacrificed everything. To this day, many of the first responders experience a variety of diseases linked to what is the most memorable event in post-modern American history. These attacks changed our entire world; a new war, safety guidelines and regulations for travel, advancements in technology to monitor suspicious prospects, and even the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Yes, the day the world paused threw us into what is considered a counterterrorism and post-9/11 method of law enforcement and supervision globally.

We learned a lot that day. We learned what our vulnerabilities were, but we also learned our strengths. The entire country put aside all its differences and came together to avenge those who perpetrated these attacks. Americans were one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. While the country started trying to put the pieces of our democracy and hope back together, from the East to West Coasts people were mourning the loss of thousands of lives.

As we have continued to develop and implement measures to ensure our democracy is never attacked in such a way ever again, we have begun to regress nearly two decades later. How so? Look who is in the Oval Office. Our largest threat to our democracy is now the President of the United States. Not only is he a tremendous threat to our country’s foundations, he is now a new threat to our brave heroes from that day in 2001 and the weeks, months, and years which followed.

The final death toll for the day of 9/11 is 2,977 lives that were lost. After the start of a post-9/11 war in the Middle East we have lost an additional 14,383 Americans. But there are still many survivors left with heavy consequences for their bravery.

It is estimated that over 400,000 people were exposed to toxic 9/11 dust. Of those, only a quarter have been screened for 9/11 related illnesses. As for the long-term effects they are still being studied and are not completely understood yet. The WTC Health Program has over 58,000 survivors and first responders enrolled who have struggled with 9/11’s after effects, including: respiratory problems, pulmonary heart disease, and an notably higher rate of cancer compared to the general population were among the findings, per the program’s statistics.
This also means that they are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 – the virus at the root of the global pandemic that attacks the lungs and compromised immune systems. COVID-19 has also been linked to damage to the heart.

A portion of the survivors with 9/11 related illnesses have also received aid from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in addition to coverage through the WTC Health Program. The fund is supported through the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, a U.S. law that provides health monitoring and financial aid to first responders, volunteers, advocates, labor unions, and survivors of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was signed into law by President Obama in early 2011.

It wasn’t until Donald Trump began his presidency that the Treasury Department began withholding funds for payments that were for covering medical services for firefighters, paramedics, and emergency technicians who are suffering from 9/11 related illnesses. These individuals had inhaled enormous amounts of smoke and toxic dust at Ground Zero during the attacks and aftermath leading to the illnesses previously listed: cancer and systemic autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Wait a minute – I thought Donald Trump would never defund our first responders? Apparently, that excludes the ones that are sick.

The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOHS) is the organization which oversees the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program. It is reported that the Treasury Department started to withhold funds designated specifically for the program. Approximately half a million dollars was held each year for 2016 and 2017, and $630,000 each year in 2018 and 2019. What about 2020? As recently as this August it shows that the Treasury has tripled the amounts to $1.447 million according to the program’s director, Dr. David Prezant. “This was disappearing – without any notification,” he told the Daily News. Prezant, who is also the FDNY’s Chief Medical Officer, added: “Here we have sick World Trade Center-exposed firefighters and EMS workers, at a time when the city is having difficult financial circumstances due to COVID-19, and we’re not getting the money we need to be able to treat these heroes.”

What really amplifies the disrespect and lack of regard for these individuals who risked everything for our country is that not once did the program receive notification or an answer as to why the cuts were being made. “And for years, they wouldn’t even tell us – we never received a letter telling us this,” Prezant said.

It took the involvement of Republican Sen. Peter King from Long Island to ask NIOHS and the Department of Health and Human Services for an explanation. The reason was that allegedly other entities in NYC have been at a standstill with the federal government over costs for Medicare bills. Ultimately this resulted in money being cut from the FDNY WTC Health Program in order to cover the delinquent Medicare debt from these organizations. In an email to MarketWatch, the Treasury Department confirmed via email it is in contact with Sen. King and is working with NYC’s Department of Finance to find a resolution.

Sen. King still had strong words over the situation. “It’s disgraceful,” he said. “I don’t even care what the details of this thing is. That fund has to be fully compensated, fully reimbursed. I mean, this is absurd. If anyone were true American heroes, it was the cops and firemen on 9/11, especially the firemen, and for even $1 to be held back is absolutely indefensible.” King has also written to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and plans on speaking with Vice President Mike Pence about the missing funds during the Tunnel to Towers event that is being held today.

Furthermore, the Treasury Department provided another response in an emailed statement, which read: “Treasury adhered to its statutory obligations established by Congress regarding debts owed by New York, but we are also working with Congressman King and others to examine any potential authorities to provide relief in this case to support our nation’s 9/11 heroes.”

This report should outrage people. Regardless of the fact that Medicare expenses were needing to be addressed, the funds were specifically approved for ONLY the 9/11 fund for those who are suffering illnesses from Ground Zero. It is inexcusable to defund medical treatment for our heroes. This was not up to the President, or Mnuchin, to reallocate them to other non-relevant expenses.

After reading the reports I am nothing but royally pissed about this kind of deceit and irreverence towards these individuals. My uncle had survived 9/11 but a week later the labor union forced him and the other members to begin cleaning up on Ground Zero or be kicked from the union. In November 2016, the year he was going to retire and celebrated his 35-year wedding anniversary, he lost his battle to a rare bladder cancer that was linked to only 9/11 first responders that had been confirmed through these same programs. He watched people landing on the ground who had jumped from the top floors of the towers to their deaths, pulled an elderly man out of one of the towers who was lost and confused and was going to stay, and then did his civic duty and cleaned up the rubble and remains at Ground Zero where the once iconic twin towers of the NYC skyline stood. All of this, just to be diagnosed 15 years later with a 9/11 specific form of cancer in January and gone by November.

In these last few days, we have continued to see Trump’s disregard and lack of any respect for the men and women in uniform – military and now first responders. His tone is the ones who die are losers and that they are suckers for not doing their jobs for a monetary profitable return because all Donald cares about is making money for himself. This is the President of the United States, our Commander in Chief. And he has not one single care in the world about those who sacrifice for our country and its Constitution. Donald Trump lived in New York; it is his home state. Not once did he go down to Ground Zero and lift a finger to help. Hell, he is the kind of person that seems like he would ask how much it would cost to buy the land so he can put a Trump hotel right on it.

The point is as we remember the brave Americans who lost their lives from this attack, we also remember the fear, uncertainty, and pain that we felt on September 11, 2011. We must acknowledge that these same emotions are felt nationally today. Defunding the 9/11 fund just shows the callousness of our leader and his enablers within his Administration. If we are to truly remember those both alive and dead, then we must ensure only people who respect their sacrifices should be leading this country.

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