Two additional GOP senators signaled their support for the 9/11 Victims Fund bill on Thursday following Jon Stewart’s shaming of lawmakers who were not present for testimony from 9/11 first responders at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing earlier this week, The Post has learned.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) plans to co-sponsor a bill to replenish the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said he wants to continue supporting first responders, reps for the senators told The Post.
A spokesperson for Young said the senator “hopes legislation will be considered in the coming weeks.”
Hoeven’s support brings the bill’s co-sponsors up to 41 — including nine Republicans. But even with Young’s commitment, the bill is still three votes shy of a veto-proof majority.
Click Here: Sports Water Bottles
Stewart, the former host of “The Daily Show,” scolded lawmakers for missing a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Tuesday in which first responders and other victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks testified.
Many of those who worked on the pile or lived near the former Twin Towers are now being diagnosed with cancer and other diseases. Among those at the hearing was retired NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez, who was about to begin his 69th round of chemotherapy for liver cancer.
“As I sit here today, I can’t help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process of getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to,” Stewart testified to the five House members present.
“Behind me a filled room of 9/11 first responders and in front of me a near-empty Congress — sick and dying they brought themselves down here to speak to no one.”
The shame quickly turned to action, as House Judiciary members unanimously passed the bill — which would permanently reauthorize the Victim Compensation Fund — out of the committee. Previous 9/11 fund bills had to be renewed every five years.
If the bill goes through regular order, it will need to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office first and then can come to the House floor for a vote.
It’s expected to pass easily, as it now has 319 co-sponsors. Ten new House co-sponsors, including seven Republicans, signed onto the bill since the hearing.
But it’s the math in the Senate that’s more challenging.
The Post reached out to the office of every Republican senator who wasn’t yet sponsoring the bill for comment on each lawmaker’s position.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will also have to bring it to the floor. His office pointed to comments Thursday that he made Tuesday about the Victim Compensation Fund.
“We’ve always dealt with that in the past in a compassionate way, and I assume we will again,” McConnell said then.
0 thoughts on “More GOP senators support 9\/11 victims fund bill after Jon Stewart shaming”