350G PAYCHECK FOR CITY'S 9/11 SCROOGE

By SUSAN EDELMAN
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10152006/news/regionalnews/350g_paycheck_for_citys_9_11_scr
ooge_regionalnews_susan_edelman.htm

October 15, 2006 -- The woman in charge of the $1 billion fund that's fighting claims by sickened
World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers is collecting $350,000 a year plus benefits from
the federal fund - a pay package that has stunned and angered advocates for the 9/11 responders.
Christine LaSala, president and CEO of the city-controlled WTC Captive Insurance Co., which is
managing the 9/11 fund created by Congress, gets the entity's top salary - which has never before
been publicly revealed - plus $20,000 in health benefits for herself and her family, documents
obtained by The Post show.
Meanwhile, teams of lawyers hired by the fund to dispute and deny more than 5,000 claims for
illnesses blamed on toxic exposure at Ground Zero earn up to $550 an hour for "senior partners,"
the records show. Other top lawyers working for the entity earn higher rates, sources said.
The Post has reported that Captive, a self-insurance fund set up by the city in 2004 to cover
claims from the WTC cleanup, had spent more than $40 million as of four months ago on
overhead and lawyers. The company has refused to pay a single ill Ground Zero responder.
LaSala, 56, a former partner at insurance brokerage Johnson & Higgins, took the helm of the
captive in mid-2004.
"It's amazing that Ms. LaSala gets $20,000 for health insurance while the 9/11 heroes she's
fighting often have no health coverage at all," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
"If the city wanted someone to do nothing, I'm sure they could find someone a lot cheaper than
$370,000 per year," Maloney said. "This salary could have helped a lot of sick and injured
workers take care of their families."
Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which keeps a registry of
cops suffering respiratory illness, cancer and other diseases since working at the toxic WTC pit
and Fresh Kills landfill, was taken aback.
"They're paying that kind of salary to someone overseeing a campaign where lawyers are working
to deprive people of benefits for the illnesses they developed at Ground Zero," Lynch said. "9/11
responders are struggling with medical bills."
LaSala's pay exceeds by $100,000 the $250,000 salary of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the
highest-paid city employee, who oversees a $14 billion budget, 110,000 employees and 1.1
million kids.
susan.edelman@nypost.com

Shortly after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, the
United States Congress set aside one billion dollars for the express
purpose of reimbursing the injured workers who were exposed to toxic
fumes, smoke and particulate matter while working in and around the site
of the World Trade Center after 9/11. In Pub. L. No. 108-7, 117 Stat. 517,
518, (Feb. 12, 2003), a spending appropriation bill, Congress directed that
FEMA “provide, from funds…. up to $1,000,000,000 to establish a captive
 insurance company or other appropriate insurance mechanism for claims
arising from debris removal, which may include claims made by city
employees.” The funds were distributed through the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (“FEMA”) to the mechanism created by New York
State for the purpose of administering those claims, the WTC Captive
Insurance Co., Inc. (“WTCC”).

Since its inception, the WTCC has consistently violated the Congressional
intent that allocated its funding by refusing to consider the claims of the
thousands of firefighters, police officers, iron workers and other
construction personnel who have contracted life-threatening illnesses as a
result of their work at the WTC site. Instead, the Captive (and the City of
New York) has consistently argued in court papers and in the press that it
exists solely for the purpose of defending the City and its contractors in
litigation brought by those injured workers. Since its inception, hundreds
of millions of dollars have…

IMPORTANT SITE:
http://www.wtccaptivefund.com/

STATE OF NEW YORK

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER
GEORGE E. PATAKI, GOVERNOR

Press Office
518-474-8418
212-681-4640
http://www.state.ny.us

FOR RELEASE:
IMMEDIATE, Friday
March 21, 2003

GOVERNOR PATAKI, MAYOR BLOOMBERG UNVEIL NEW CAPTIVE

INSURANCE LEGISLATION TO HELP NYC, STATE'S BUSINESS
COMMUNITY
Bill Allows for Sponsored Captives for New York's Businesses and the Creation of
NYC Captive for WTC Response Providing Important Coverages
http://www.ins.state.ny.us/press/2003/p0303213.htm

Governor George E. Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today
announced new legislation that will allow a wider range of businesses the opportunity to
utilize captive insurance companies to retain, fund, and better manage some of their risk.

The proposed bill will also allow for the formation of a pure captive insurance
company by New York City to provide coverages for liability relating to or arising out of
activities in or near the World Trade Center site in response to the attacks of September
11, 2001.

"The new legislation will mean New York City will now have important insurance
coverages it greatly needs relating to the tragedies of September 11th,"Governor Pataki
said. "The Federal Emergency Management Agency specifically authorized the creation
of a New York City captive and the City explored various options and decided that the
formation of a captive insurance company was in its best interest for claims arising out of
the clean-up effort at and near the World Trade Center.

"Our policies of cutting taxes, controlling spending, and eliminating red tape have
strengthened the State's business climate. This bill reaffirms my commitment to pursuing
policies that result in creating business opportunities and jobs in the State of New York,"
Governor Pataki said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "The City of New York, together
with State officials and the New York Congressional delegation, has fought long and hard
for federally-paid insurance to protect the City and its contractors for claims arising from
the massive debris removal work done in the World Trade Center. This legislation is
necessary for the City to expedite the payment of claims relating to this effort."

The new State captive legislation contains several provisions to help the State's
business community. The bill provides a new risk transfer vehicle, known as a sponsored
captive insurance company, which permits various participants to use the same vehicle to
self-fund their risks. The bill in addition, creates additional flexibility by lowering the
threshold for businesses to form single parent captives and to participate in a group
captive. As well, public entities that meet appropriate standards will also be permitted to
form captives.

The U.S. Congress recently passed legislation directing the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) to provide the City of New York with up to $1 billion in
coverage for the City and its contractors for claims arising from debris removal
performed after the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. The federal legislation
also directs the City of New York to use such funds to establish a captive insurance
company or other such appropriate insurance mechanism.

Superintendent of Insurance Gregory V. Serio said, "The new State captive

legislation also creates greater flexibility and allows businesses and public entities new
opportunities to avail themselves of greater choices for more efficiency in managing and
financing risk. Given the contraction of the commercial insurance market around the
country, the new legislation affords even more of New York's businesses a valuable
option by offering the use of captives as an alternative form of insurance. The New York
State Insurance Department is proud of its status as both a facilitator of insurance
coverage for New York's businesses and industry regulator of safety and soundness in the
best traditions of financial regulation. The Department stands ready to help New York's
businesses manage their risk, save money and gain greater control of their corporate
futures."

Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles A. Gargano said,

Companies from across the State, across the Nation, and around the world are expanding
their operations and investing their futures in New York. This important legislation is yet
another example of Governor Pataki working to improve the business climate of New
York and his commitment to pursuing pro-business, pro-growth policies."

Governor Pataki signed New York's first captive legislation in August 1997,
authorizing the formation of captive insurance companies in the State. Captives are
created when a business or groups of businesses join to insure or reinsure their own risk.
And allowing these insurers and their managers to operate free of most regulatory
constraints, serving exclusively the companies or industries that form them.

Superintendent Serio added, "The Department's streamlined licensing process will

allow New York's business community to benefit from captive formation. Once formed, a
captive can reduce a business' insurance costs by reducing premiums, accessing the
reinsurance market, and centralizing the enterprise's risk management operation. I
encourage the State's business community to explore the possibilities and the advantages
associated with the creation of captives."

The Insurance Department recently announced a newly dedicated "captive group"

and the launch of a new Web site designed to fast-track applications for captive
formation. In order to be even more responsive to the needs of a rapidly changing
insurance marketplace, New York's businesses now have dedicated contacts in the
Department of Insurance to answer all captive insurance questions and process captive
applications within 30 days of the receipt of a fully completed application. The web
address is www.NYCaptives.com.

2nd Circuit: 9/11 Suits Destined for Federal Court

Appeals court advises judge to reclaim cases
Tom Perrotta
New York Law Journal
July 19, 2005

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1121721616822

Lawsuits by firefighters and rescue workers who claim they suffered respiratory injuries
at the World Trade Center site belong in federal, not state, court, a federal appeals court
ruled last week.
In a 46-page decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the reasoning of
a Southern District judge who remanded to state court all suits dealing with injuries after
Sept. 29, 2001, the day the World Trade Center rescue operation officially ended.

The appeals court, however, left it up to the judge, Southern District Judge Alvin K.
Hellerstein, to rectify the matter, saying it was prohibited from reviewing an order that
remanded cases to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, even if the order was
erroneous.

But the appeals court in In re: WTC Disaster Site clearly suggested what action
Hellerstein should take.

"Given our view that the respiratory injury claims before the district court are preempted
by [the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (ATSSSA) of 2001] and
are claims over which the district court has exclusive jurisdiction, we invite the district
court, in any such actions as remain pending before it, to reconsider so much of its
decision as ordered remands to state court," wrote Judge Amalya L. Kearse for the
unanimous court.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and attorneys representing the city and contractors named in the
suits said they expected Judge Hellerstein to reclaim the cases.

He had stayed his remand order until the 2nd Circuit could weigh in.

"The ball is in Judge Hellerstein's court," said Kenneth A. Becker, an assistant

corporation counsel who is chief of the office's World Trade Center division.

"We have every reason to believe that Judge Hellerstein will follow this decision," said
James E. Tyrrell, a partner at the Newark office of Latham & Watkins, which is acting as
lead counsel for the city and its contractors.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs -- hundreds of firefighters who say they suffered debilitating,
even career-ending respiratory injuries from toxic fumes at the site -- had urged
Hellerstein to remand the suits to state court.

The Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act, enacted shortly after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, limited the city's liability in Trade Center lawsuits to
the greater of $350 million or the city's insurance coverage.

In state court, the plaintiffs would not have had to contend with a cap.

Last week, though, Frank V. Floriani, a partner at Sullivan Papain Block McGrath &
Cannavo, which represents 175 firefighters, said the plaintiffs would not be hurt by a
move to federal court.
"We are okay with that," he said. "Our causes of action are still intact."

The 2nd Circuit affirmed Hellerstein as to the cases he kept under his jurisdiction. But it
questioned the dividing lines the judge created when he ruled that all claims after Sept.
29, along with any claims that arose from debris that was moved off site, whether or not
they arose before Sept. 29, would not be covered by the federal act.

"The district court's geographical line would mean that, as to a given pile of debris that
gave off toxic fumes both at the World Trade Center site and at a marine transfer station
or the landfill to which it was transported, the claim of a worker who inhaled those fumes
at the World Trade Center site would be preempted, while the claim of a worker who
inhaled fumes from the same debris at either of the other sites would not," Kearse wrote.
"In sum, in making the ATSSSA-created federal cause of action the exclusive remedy for
damages arising out of the September 11 plane crashes, Congress clearly expressed its
intent to preempt state-law remedies for damages claims arising out of those crashes."

The next stages of the litigation likely will deal with immunity claims from the city.

The true nature of the cap also will be a subject of dispute, now that Congress, the state
and the city have created the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company.

The company is funded by $1 billion in federal money to indemnify the city and its
contractors and sub-contractors against Trade Center claims.

Tyrrell said the fund was not created to simply increase the liability of the defendants to
$1 billion.

Judges Jose A. Cabranes and Edward R. Korman, the chief judge of U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District, who was sitting by designation, concurred on the ruling.

Stephen C. Glasser, of counsel at Sullivan Papain, argued the appeal for the plaintiffs.

Ryan S. Goldstein and Robin Wertheimer represented the majority of those plaintiffs not
represented by Sullivan Papain.

Richard A. Williamson of Flemming, Zulack & Williamson represented The Port

Authority of New York and New Jersey and World Trade Center Properties, an affiliation
of Trade Center leaseholder Larry A. Silverstein.
Subscribe to New York Law Journal
 Reps. Nadler, Lofgren Investigate Status
of Compensation for 9/11 Illnesses
Hearing Marks First Congressional Inquiry into Economic
Losses of Individuals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chair of the Judiciary

Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Congresswoman
Zoe Lofgren (CA-16), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship,
Refugees, Border Security, and International Law today held a joint oversight hearing
titled, “Paying With Their Lives: The Status of Compensation for 9/11 Health Effects.”

“I am outraged that more than six years after 9/11, the heroes of that day are still waiting
for the help they deserve,” said Rep. Nadler. “The federal government not only failed to
protect those who died on 9/11, but it also bears responsibility for not preventing the
injuries of thousands more. Obviously, none of this would have occurred were it not for
the terrorists, but many of the injuries we are seeing today could have been avoided.
Therefore, the federal government has a moral and legal obligation to compensate the
living victims of 9/11, to provide for their health, and to attempt to make them whole for
their subsequent financial losses. I am confident that, through this investigation, we can
find the best way to do so, and I believe it will highlight the necessity for the House to act
on the Maloney-Nadler-Fossella 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.”

“Congress has an obligation to ensure that the programs it created to assist the victims of
9/11 function efficiently and effectively,” noted Rep. Zoe Lofgren. “These programs were
created to compensate victims, not to force them into torturous litigation. Since its
creation, the Captive Insurance Fund has managed to only pay five claims. At the same
time the fund has spent millions in litigation expenses fighting countless other claims.
This hearing is an important first step in guaranteeing that the victims receive the
compensation they are entitled to under the law.”

Previous Congressional investigations have focused on how the federal government

should provide health care services for individuals whose health was adversely impacted
by the effects of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Today’s hearing is the first
time that Congress focused specifically on the economic losses of those individuals.
Many people incurred such losses when they became too sick to work and lost their jobs,
while others have inadequate health insurance, and are struggling with exorbitant medical
bills.

The hearing examined different compensation approaches used thus far to address 9/11-
related economic losses, such as the World Trade Center Victim Compensation Fund
(VCF) and the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company. Reps. Nadler and
Lofgren noted that the Captive Insurance Company, created by Congress with a $1 billion
appropriation, has spent millions of dollars in administrative and legal costs to contest,
rather than to pay, claims.
AND HERE THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TELLS ITSELF WHAT
A GREAT JUB IT IS DOING IN CATCHING HEALTH
FRAUDSTERS!!

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usab5504.pdf

As we commemorate ten remarkably successful years of the Department of Justice's

(Department) implementation of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control program included in
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-191, the Department
is launching a renewed commitment to its critical health care anti-fraud effort.

Health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_arising_from_the_September_11,_2001_atta
cks

A national disgrace: sick 9/11 workers left without medical

coverage

70 percent with respiratory ailments

By Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Senate from New
York
9 September 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006/911-s09.shtml

Thousands of rescue and recovery workers who responded to the September 11 terrorist
attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center are now suffering from chronic,
debilitating and potentially life-threatening illnesses.

The report issued September 6 by Mount Sinai Medical Center substantiating this fact
points to a staggering health care crisis.

The way these workers have been treated is nothing short of a national disgrace,
implicating every level of government, the entire political establishment and the profit
system itself. A government that has shamelessly exploited the events of 9/11 to promote
criminal policies ranging from wars of aggression abroad to the destruction of democratic
rights at home has largely turned its back on them, leaving thousands without medical
coverage.

The Mount Sinai study found that some 70 percent of the 10,000 workers whose health it
had monitored between 2002 and 2004 suffered new or substantially worsened
respiratory problems while working on “the pile,” as the World Trade Center site became
known. More than 60 percent remained ill long after the site was cleared. Fully a third of
these workers have diminished lung capacity. Many suffer from chronic illnesses that are
only expected to worsen over time.

“There should no longer be any doubt about the health effects of the World Trade Center
disaster,” said Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of Mount Sinai’s World Trade Center
program. “Our patients are sick, and they will need ongoing care for the rest of their
lives.”

“Sadder still,” she added, “we continue each year to see new patients in the medical
monitoring program who have either never been treated for their WTC illnesses, or who
have received delayed or sub-optimal treatment.”

Those affected are among the 40,000 workers who poured into the site after the Twin
Towers were struck on September 11, claiming more than 2,500 lives. They included
emergency responders—firefighters, cops and paramedics—who sought to rescue people
from the buildings before they fell. They then participated in the desperate but largely
fruitless effort to find survivors—and the grim task of recovering remains. Other public
employees—transit workers, sanitation workers, etc.—joined in the effort, and many
thousands of building trades, utility, telephone and other workers participated in the
massive job of removing millions of tons of debris from the ruins of the demolished
skyscrapers and restoring essential services.

Many worked until they dropped from exhaustion, breathing in an atmosphere that was a
toxic soup of concrete dust, pulverized glass, asbestos, poisonous chemicals and smoke.
In the initial days, most were not provided with respirators. Later, many did not wear the
devices, and no agency—federal, state or city—took it upon itself to enforce their use.

Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal that published the Mount Sinai study,
noted in 2004 that the destruction of the World Trade Center unleashed “the largest acute
environmental disaster that ever has befallen New York City.”

At least half a dozen workers are known to have already died as a result of severe
illnesses that resulted from their exposure to this disaster.

Many thousands of others have been left disabled, forced to quit their jobs. In the New
York City Fire Department, which has conducted the most thorough monitoring of any
group of workers, some 700 have been forced into early retirement because of disabling
respiratory illnesses, while more than 3,400 fire fighters and emergency medical workers
—fully 25 percent of the workforce—suffer from lung-related conditions.

Many are afflicted with the “trade center cough,” a chronic and debilitating hacking that
is in many cases a symptom of asthma, bronchitis and the scarring of lung tissue that are
the results of prolonged exposure to the toxic cloud that hovered over the fallen towers.
Inevitably, even more severe problems remain ahead for many of these workers. Cancers
caused by exposure to asbestos and toxic chemicals that permeated the atmosphere in the
wake of the 9/11 attacks take anywhere from 5 to more than 20 years to manifest
themselves. Benzene, which was released by burning jet fuel and plastic at the World
Trade Center site, causes leukemia, which can occur as early as four or five years after
exposure.

Among the more shocking statistics released in the Mount Sinai report is the fact that 40
percent of those screened have no medical insurance and are therefore unable to afford
even minimal care. No doubt, this figure is even higher among the total number suffering
illnesses as a result of their work at the site, given that many undocumented immigrant
workers were contracted in the weeks after 9/11 to clean up contaminated buildings and
offices, with contractors paying little or no attention to health and safety issues.

Also, the study does not cover thousands more people who were affected by the
environmental disaster as a result of their living or working in lower Manhattan in the
weeks and months after the terrorist attacks. However, there are ample indications that
this population has suffered as well. One study, for example, uncovered a substantially
elevated rate of low birth-weights and premature deliveries among pregnant women who
lived or worked near the trade center site.

From the outset, government officials exhibited criminal indifference to the

environmental effects of the disaster on workers and residents alike. Their principal
concern was to contain costs and get Wall Street up and running as quickly as possible in
order to minimize profit losses for America’s corporations and super-rich.

Lying to the public on toxic threat

To achieve this goal, they deliberately deceived the public. Documents released this week
make clear that both city and federal agencies were aware of the toxic threat, even as they
told the public and workers alike that there was no danger.

“In addition to standard construction/demolition site safety concerns, this site also poses
threats to workers related to potential exposure to hazardous substances,” read an October
5, 2001, letter from the US Environmental Protection Agency to the city’s Health
Department.

A day later, a memo from an official in the Health Department stated that the city’s
Department of Environmental Protection “believes the air quality is not yet suitable for
re-occupancy” in the cordoned-off blocks surrounding the site. Nonetheless, she added,
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani—who has since made millions by cashing in on 9/11 fame—
was ordering them reopened because of pressure from businesses and building owners.

These documents were pried loose by the Environmental Justice Project under a Freedom
of Information Act request.
Just weeks before the EPA letter was written, then-agency head Christie Whitman issued
a statement claiming that those working and living in proximity to the trade center site
were “not being exposed to excessive levels of asbestos or other harmful substances,” and
that “their air is safe to breathe.” In another statement she insisted, “There is no reason
for concern.”

For his part, Giuliani declared on September 28, 2001, “Although they occasionally will
have an isolated reading with an unacceptable level of asbestos...it’s very occasional and
very isolated. The air quality is safe and acceptable.”

Now, each is pointing the finger of blame at the other. In a “60 Minutes” television
interview to be broadcast Sunday, Whitman blamed the city for failing to enforce use of
respirators at the site.

Giuliani’s former deputy mayor Joe Lhota responded by declaring, “The EPA publicly
reported that air quality was safe and the city repeatedly instructed workers on the pile to
use their respirators.”

The same combination of negligence and duplicity has characterized the response of
every level of government to the mushrooming health disaster since.

The federal government sought to paper over the problem by naming Dr. John Howard,
head of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, as its 9/11 health
coordinator—without providing an additional cent in funding for this task nor a single
full-time staff member.

Howard has been candid about the shameful inadequacy of the government’s response.
Of the meager $52 million in federal funds allocated for treatment, he commented, “You
don’t have to go to cancers years from now, or asbestosis, to be able to say, ‘Gee, John,
how far do you think this money is going to go?’ I don’t think it will go very far.”

The city, meanwhile, failed for nearly five years to even issue official physician
guidelines for diagnosis of 9/11 illnesses, and has zealously contested attempts by city
employees suffering disabling illnesses from securing “line-of-duty” pensions given to
those forced out by on-the-job injuries.

No agency has conducted a thorough scientific study of the environmental impact of the
Trade Center disaster. As with other aspects of 9/11, it is apparently believed that the facts
are better left unknown.

Speaking at a City Hall press conference on the day the Mount Sinai study was released,
New York City’s billionaire Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg still tried to deny the
obvious. “I don’t believe that you can say specifically a particular problem came from
this particular event,” he stated.
Bloomberg’s overriding concern is clearly that the city not be held financially liable.
While his administration has sought to hand billions of dollars in tax revenues to private
developers seeking to build sports stadiums and other projects, it wants to limit as much
as possible the amount it is forced to pay to save workers’ lives. It is presently fighting a
lawsuit brought in Manhattan federal court on behalf of 8,000 trade center responders
charging the city with reckless disregard for workers’ health.

In the final analysis, the disgraceful treatment of those who lost their health in the rescue
and recovery effort is emblematic of the contempt and indifference that America’s ruling
elite and its government exhibit toward the deep-going social problems confronting the
American working class as a whole.

More than 46 million Americans lack any health insurance. Workers injured on the job
are routinely subjected to humiliation and rejection in their attempts to secure workers
compensation, while corporate interests protest that any such benefits are an unacceptable
impediment to profit.

The case of the World Trade Center responders stands out because of the undeniable
heroism of those who worked there and the grotesque hypocrisy that has characterized
the attempts to exploit this heroism for the most reactionary political purposes.

The demand that billions be allocated to monitor and treat all those who have suffered
illnesses as a result of their work at “Ground Zero” must be joined with the fight for
universal, comprehensive and publicly funded health care for all.

See Also:
Bush, Congress snatch funds from injured 9/11 workers
[22 June 2005]
Ex-New York Mayor Giuliani booed at 9/11 hearing: Myth confronts reality
[22 May 2004]
New York firefighters storm “Ground Zero”
[5 November 2001]

IF CONYERS SAW SO MUCH UGLINESS GOING ON WHY DIDN’T HE

FREAKIN DO SOMETHING???!!!!!!!

For Immediate Release Contact: Jonathan Godfrey

April 1, 2008 Melanie Roussell

http://judiciary.house.gov/news/040108_2.html
(Washington, DC)- Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) gave the following statement at today's
joint hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security,
and International Law, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties entitled Paying With Their Lives: The Status of Compensation for 9/11 Health Effects.
During his questioning of the panelists, Conyers also expressed support for providing relief to
those who suffer ongoing mental health trauma in addition to those suffering from physical
ailments.

In the wake of the World Trade Center attacks, then-Governer Pataki and then-Mayor Giuliani
took a “do it yourself” attitude towards the victims of an unprecedented disaster. Instead of
respirators and professional clean-up, first responders, construction workers, and volunteers were
sent into the pile without protection. And the public got instructions to just wipe their apartments
and offices down with a wet rag. Now cancer and lung disease are ravaging the survivors.

While Mayor Bloomberg has worked hard to fix the mess left by his predecessors, the city has
taken an adversarial stance against the victims of this environmental tragedy. That needs to stop.
Attorney Cardozo, Mayor Bloomberg – let’s sit down and start the settlement negotiations that
will get these victims the help that they deserve.

I’m talking about real negotiations. Not sweeping immunity from lawsuits. This is not “FISA part
II” in which the mantra of 9/11 is invoked to support demands for retroactive immunity. If there
are claims that need to be paid, and negligence that needs to be addressed, that process needs to
play out. But we can come together to make it work, and to ensure that these honorable victims
are taken care of.

The victims’ compensation fund in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks was a success, and
we are very pleased to be joined today by the former Special Master in charge of that effort,
Kenneth Feinberg.

The Fund and the legislation that created it constituted a response that focused on the immediate
– the persons who were killed or injured on that eventful morning as well as those who went into
the wreckage while the fires still raged. These individuals and their families received assistance
through the Fund.

1. There is a need to help other victims of 9/11

Unfortunately, there were others. Some didn’t know that there was a place for them in the Fund
because the outreach efforts focused on the families of the dead, rather than on the living. Others
were not eligible for the Fund because they were on-site within the first 96 hours after the planes
hit. Still others were not included because their symptoms did not manifest themselves
immediately.

What do we now know? First, of the workers being monitored under a Mt. Sinai study, 70 percent
are showing respiratory problems. Hundreds of people have been stricken with cancer based on
their exposure to airborne particles released by the World Trade Center. Some of these cancers are
so virulent that some individuals have already died.

Many of these victims bravely rushed in to help others. Others trusted their employers who sent
them to do clean-up in the months that followed, even though they were not provided protective
gear.
2. The response by Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani was insufficient

Second, as the environmental disaster spread a dust of poison over the site and the surrounding
area, the EPA, OSHA, the City, and certain state officials took a “do it yourself” approach to
protecting the public. FEMA refused to relocate people from contaminated homes and
apartments, and refused to pay for the cleanup. The suggestion to just wipe things down with a
wet rag was as ineffective a response to asbestos, lead, and PCBs as duct tape would have been to
a chemical weapons attack.

3. The City of New York is fighting the victims, not serving them as it should

Third, I call on Mayor Bloomberg to reverse the City’s position in litigating against the very
people that need our thanks.

In 2003, we appropriated a billion dollars for the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company
(WTCC) to process and compensate claims resulting from debris removal.

Instead of serving these victims, the WTCC spends most of its time challenging their claims, and
even litigating against the very individuals it was chartered to assist! As a result, the WTCC has
only compensated five victims to date, while more than 8,600 claims remain outstanding.

Will there be any money left to compensate these victims once the WTCC has spent it all on
attorneys’ fees fighting them?

Compare this outcome with what Mr. Feinberg was able to do with the Fund, where 97% of
claimants were compensated.

The WTCC needs to stop wasting taxpayers’ money and start assisting the thousands of people it
was established to serve.

I thank Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren and Chairman Jerry Nadler for holding this joint hearing, and
to congratulate Jerry Nadler for all of his hard work on H.R. 3543, legislation that will address
these difficult issues.

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