On The Heels Of 9/11, Garbarino, Gillibrand, Schumer, Braun, Nadler, D’Esposito, Goldman Champion Bipartisan Push To Help Close World Trade Center Health Program Funding Gap In Final NDAA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the heels of 9/11, a group of bipartisan senators and members are announcing a bipartisan push to include the Senate-passed amendment sponsored by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) to help address the funding shortfall in the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) in the final version of the FY24 NDAA. The letter supporting this amendment is led by Senator Gillibrand and Representative Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02), the House sponsor of 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2023. The letter is also signed by Senator Braun, Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-12), Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY-4), and Dan Goldman (D-NY-10).

The Gillibrand-Braun amendment would deliver $676 million for the WTCHP and allow excluded Pentagon and Shanksville responders to join the program. The Gillibrand-Braun amendment is modeled off the bipartisan 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2023 and is fully offset by reforms that will reduce administrative costs in the federal government.

“This July, the Senate voted to uphold our promise to care for all those still suffering from 9/11-related illnesses by helping to close the funding gap in the World Trade Center Health Program. Those who need this program should not have to live in fear that it could run out of funding and go over a cliff. We will continue fighting until these heroic men and women can rest assured this program will always be there for them,” said the lawmakers. “To honor those we lost and to thank those who risked everything to save their fellow Americans, we urge congressional leadership to include our amendment in the final NDAA conference report.”

After years of efforts and calls on the federal government, Congress established the WTCHP on a bipartisan basis in 2011 with a five-year authorization to provide medical treatment and monitoring for 9/11 responders and survivors suffering from the effects of the toxins at Ground Zero. The program covers the lifespans of all exposed, including responders and survivors of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Shanksville crash site, children who were in schools in downtown Manhattan on 9/11 and during clean-up, and those who have since experienced, or are expected to experience, adverse health effects that are linked to the attacks in the coming years. The program was reauthorized in 2015 and extended through 2090 with bipartisan support. In 2022, lawmakers delivered $1 billion for the program in the end-of-year spending bill.

Today, eight years since Congress reauthorized the program, it is estimated that the funding formula in the statute will not be able to keep pace with the anticipated costs of providing the program’s services for 9/11 heroes, who span all fifty states and 434 of the 435 congressional districts. Soon, the WTCHP will not have the funds needed to provide care for all those still suffering the physical and mental impacts of 9/11 and for those who have yet to be diagnosed with new 9/11-associated conditions caused by their toxic exposures.

Read the full letter below:

Dear Chairman Reed, Ranking Member Wicker, Chairman Rogers, and Ranking Member Smith:

We write to urge the conference report of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to include the Gillibrand-Braun #1065 amendment, which was agreed upon in the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 94 to 4.

As you know, the Gillibrand-Braun #1065 amendment is a bipartisan, scaled-down version of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act. Compared to earlier versions of the text, this amendment does not include technical policy changes and costs a total of $676 million, which is fully offset by the inclusion of a reform to the citizen’s petition process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce administrative costs. Specifically, the citizen’s petition process allows stakeholders to express concerns about pending drug applications to the FDA, which is required to respond to such petitions. However, some bad actors use this process to delay generic competition from entering the market. By reforming the citizen’s petition process, the FDA will have more discretion to reject citizen petitions if the petition’s primary purpose is to delay the approval of a pending drug application. This will lead to greater access to generic drugs and more competition in the marketplace, in addition to cutting administrative costs at the FDA.

The following is the specific breakdown of the amendment’s funding:

• $444 million to partially address the funding shortfall facing the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP).
• $232 million to expand eligibility to 9/11 responders at the Pentagon and Shanksville sites who were active-duty DOD military or civilians, along with other Federal employees currently excluded from the program.

The WTCHP provides medical treatment and monitoring for over 124,000 responders and survivors from the attacks on the World Trade Center and lower Manhattan, the attack on the Pentagon, and the Shanksville crash site. 9/11 survivors and responders live in every State and all but one congressional district. It is also worth noting that the WTCHP has been consistently free of reported fraud since its inception.

While Congress extended the program to 2090, the precipitous rise in medical costs and cancer rates in survivors and first responders since then has led to an impending funding shortfall that must be addressed. Unless Congress acts, the program will have to announce in 2027 that responders and survivors who suffer from an illness arising from of their heroic service to our country will not be able to join the program, and that starting in 2028, the program will bar new enrollees along with other anticipated cuts in services.

To honor those we lost and to thank those who risked everything to save their fellow Americans, we urge you to include the Gillibrand-Braun #1065 amendment in the final NDAA conference report. In doing so, we would guarantee that these heroic men and women are able to continue to receive the health care benefits they deserve.

Sincerely,

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