OPINION:
President Biden’s recent executive order to release $7 billion in frozen reserves to aid Afghans and 9/11 victims, while well-intentioned, creates new problems that need to be immediately addressed even as the world’s attention is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Biden’s order seeks to divide $7 billion in frozen Afghan reserves evenly for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and for 9/11 families who sued to recover money from al Qaeda and the Taliban. The order is unacceptably vague on how to allocate the funds, and the last thing Afghans or 9/11 families need is another confusing, lengthy and costly court process. We have existing frameworks to fairly distribute these funds, and we should use them.
First, the administration must make sure that the $3.5 billion in humanitarian aid gets to the Afghans who need it, not the Taliban. The best way to accomplish that goal is to channel it through a legitimate humanitarian organization like the International Red Cross.
Second, the $3.5 billion for 9/11 victims should not be restricted to the fewer-than-50 families who sued the terrorists. The WTC Health Program (administered by NIOSH) has already certified more than 100,000 members of the 9/11 community with 9/11-related pulmonary illnesses and cancers. The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (administered by the Department of Justice) has recognized that these victims have a right to be compensated for their illnesses. The toll of 9/11 is ever rising. While, 2,977 people died on 9/11, over 4,000 more have died from those certified illnesses.
As a country, we have recognized that those who succumbed to their long and difficult illnesses are also 9/11 victims, and their devastated families are deserving of our help. That is why everyone who suffered respiratory illnesses, or who developed one of the 68 recognized 9/11-related cancers, or lost a loved one to a 9/11-certified illness, should be eligible to share these funds, and we must be consistent and fair in the allocation of resources meant to compensate the victims.
The fairest and most expeditious way to distribute these additional funds is by allocating the money to the existing September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. This fund was reopened in 2010, extended in 2015 and permanently extended and fully funded by Congress in 2019. It is the fairest and most efficient vehicle we have to getting money to those who need it most.
Since its inception the fund, working under the auspices of the Justice Department, has provided needed relief to victims and their families.
The new funding could be easily overseen by Rupa Bhattacharyya, the wonderful current VCF Special Master, or by an impartial party, like the universally well-respected Special Master Kenneth Feinberg, who administered the initial Victim Compensation Fund and has also overseen numerous other multi-billion-dollar special victim funds.
Money must also be set aside for future victims since both responders and non-responders continue to get sick and die every day. To date, only 25% of the approximately half-million eligible citizens exposed to the WTC toxins have enrolled in these programs. I know from thousands of conversations over the last decade that most are not aware of their right to do so.
We know there are hundreds of thousands of people who lived, worked and studied in lower Manhattan before and after the 9/11 attacks who should be eligible for free health care and compensation. These people went back to their homes or jobs shortly after the attacks, having been assured by government leaders that the “air was safe.” We’ve learned over time that it wasn’t.
We owe a moral obligation to take care of the people who responded to the terrorists’ attacks, as well as to the non-responders who returned to their downtown jobs, homes and schools.
The $3.5 billion should be available to everyone who died on 9/11 as well as those sickened by the 9/11 toxins.
• 9/11 legal advocate Michael Barasch is managing partner of Barasch & McGarry and has advocated for more than 25,000 members of the 9/11 community, including dozens who died on 9/11. He was the personal attorney for NYPD Detective James Zadroga, for whom the original federal 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was named.
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