Money for 9/11 health program scrapped in latest federal spending bill

WASHINGTON — House Republican leadership on Thursday stripped out the permanent funding fix for the World Trade Center Health Program in a revised short-term spending bill drafted after President-elect Donald Trump objected to the first version.

The new bill dropped the long-sought fix as Republicans sought to streamline the funding bill to keep the government open through March before the current funding runs out at midnight Friday,  slimming the original 1,547-page bill to 16 pages. 

 The House will vote on the new bill Thursday evening, a test of Republican unity as few if any Democrats will join most Republicans in support. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) predicted the new version will not pass.  

The bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY had negotiated earlier this week included a wide range of spending and legislative items, such as  the badly needed fix for the health program to address a projected shortfall beginning in 2027.

 Schumer worked with   the other three top congressional leaders to attach the funds for the health program to the bill to keep the government open but Trump on Wednesday opposed the bill after complaints by billionaire Elon Musk, who he tapped to cut spending.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), the lead sponsors of the legislation, had celebrated the inclusion of the fix, which would have changed the funding formula to increase benefits and would have avoided a projected $3 billion shortfall. 

“Senator Schumer worked across-the-aisle to successfully secure permanent funding for the 9/11 first responders health program in the original bill Republicans put out last night. Now, at the very last minute, they have stripped it out of the new proposed bill,” said Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said in a statement.

“It is critical that Long Island’s Republican House members Mr. [Nick] Lalota and Mr. Gabarino let their Speaker know that they will not support this package unless the 9-11 permanent funding for the 9/11 first responders is fully restored,” Roefaro added.

Gillibrand and Garbarino did not immediately comment.

Gillibrand on Tuesday said the funding fix would have gone into effect in 2025 and would provide substantially more funding for first responders and community members who are in the program and would keep up with inflation.

In a September press conference, Gillibrand and Garbarino projected a $2.7 billion shortfall because of inflation and increased participation by first responders and survivors. Other estimates put it as high at $3.5 billion.

The World Trade Center Health Program provides care for more than 132,000 firefighters, police and other responders, as well as residents and others in lower Manhattan, with ailments caused by toxins that spread when al-Qaida terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001.