releases: https://www.menendez.senate.gov/news-and-events/in-the-news/9/11-health-bill-held-up-over-price-tag
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.menendez.senate.gov/news-and-events/in-the-news/9/11-health-bill-held-up-over-price-tag | 9/11 health bill held up over price tag | 2015-12-10 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Democrat | House | NJ | Robert Menendez | M000639 | www.menendez.senate.gov | legacy | 9/11 health bill held up over price tag 9/11 health bill held up over price tag Print Email Tweet Thursday, December 10, 2015 By: Stephanie Condon After facing intense public pressure from comedian Jon Stewart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, promised earlier this week to fully fund health care benefits for 9/11 first responders. The legislation, however, is still held up over lawmakers' disagreement over whether the bill needs to be paid for. "The men and women who put their lives on the line... are waiting for Congress to act because we supposedly have to pay for the way in which we take care of their health care," Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, lamented on the Senate floor Wednesday. "None of us should leave Washington for the holidays without passing this bill." After years of advocacy work on behalf of first responders, Congress finally passed the Zadroga Act in 2010 to assist first responders who became sick from working at Ground Zero. However, the health care provision of that bill expired in September and will run out of funding early next year. Lawmakers in the Senate have promised that an extension of the program will be included in an omnibus bill spending bill currently under negotiation. While budget hawks have expressed concern about paying for it, Menendez pointed out that a group of senators is simultaneously negotiating a bill that would extend around $800 billion in tax breaks (for instance, it would extend write-offs for business investments and repeal a specific tax in the Affordable Care Act) and that would go unpaid for. "I don't understand how the rules don't apply to large corporations that will reap billions of dollars, but somehow those rules are asserted when we are trying to take care of the men and women who responded on that fateful day," Menendez said. "We should accept our profound, collective responsibility -- not charity -- but responsibility to act on this legislation." ...Continue reading article here. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |