Jon Stewart and the New York City first responders pushing to make permanent the funding for 9/11 victim compensation are tired of coming to Capitol Hill.
"This is theater. We're all down here today. There's no reason to have dragged these people down here. There's no reason to have to have these conversations," Stewart said at a news conference Monday. "Bullshit. You know it, and I know it."
The bipartisan lawmakers in attendance, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., want the compensation fund reauthorized for 70 years, aligning it with a companion health fund _ without a cap on new spending.
"I want to say this very loud and clear to every senator, every member of this House: We must not force our 9/11 heroes to go through this same exhausting process again," Gillibrand said. "We have to fully fund the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and make it permanent, and we must do it now."
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., was also at Monday's announcement of the new legislation, but since Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate to replace Hillary Clinton (when she resigned to become secretary of state), the state's junior senator is leading the Senate effort on 9/11 compensation programs.
Gillibrand is now running for president, and the politics of the moment permeated Monday's gathering.
Stewart, for example, took pains to praise the work of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump in administering the compensation program.
"The claims are going faster and the awards are coming through," said Stewart, the former host of "The Daily Show." Stewart has been advocating the program for years.
But the special master in charge of distributing money recently announced that the Victims Compensation Fund payments would be cut by as much as 70 percent because of a shortfall.
"After completing this year's reassessment, the Special Master determined that there is insufficient funding to pay all pending and projected claims under current VCF policies and procedures. As a result, the Special Master is required to implement changes to ensure that the VCF does not exceed its total funding," the fund said.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the $7.5 billion provided under the most recent authorization was insufficient in part because the link between the toxic piles of rubble in lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks has been linked to cancer.
"Many, many of the people who are sick and dying _ or dead _ would not have gotten sick had it not been for the federal government, and the mayor of the City of New York, Rudy Giuliani, telling everybody the air was safe to breathe, and they could work on the pile and don't worry about it," Nadler said.
The health care fund has already been authorized for what is functionally a permanent authorization, but the compensation fund is not.
With a Democratic majority in the House, there's every reason to expect the new legislation will advance as a stand-alone measure. Nadler said Monday that the Judiciary Committee will consider and the House will pass it independent of each other.
Schumer, another native of New York City, said that he would make sure senators vote.
"Everyone in the Senate should stand on notice, they're going to have to say yes or no," Schumer said.
John Feal, one of the first responders who became a leading advocate for the benefits through his Feal Good Foundation, made it sound like lawmakers who oppose the legislation should prepare for political retaliation in 2020.
"We're going to challenge every member of Congress and the Senate. We're going to challenge their empathy, we're going to challenge their humanity," Feal said. "And if you're not on board with that, then you're going to get knocked ... out," he said.
While Schumer and Nadler avoided specifically criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Stewart went right at the senator, who is up for re-election in 2020.
"I can assure you that he is an impediment to getting this done, so I would suggest bringing all measure of pressure," Stewart said. "I understand that there's a certain measure of tact that goes along with politics, but just to be truthful: It's a huge problem and the only problem."
At least two Republican senators are backing the legislation, with Gillibrand thanking both Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Cory Gardner of Colorado for their support, but that's not enough to break a filibuster on the bill.
Gardner and Rep. Peter T. King of New York were the Republican lawmakers who spoke Monday, and Gardner's story was perhaps the most unexpected.
"I had never had the opportunity to travel to New York to see the world trade centers as they were standing. I never saw them," Gardner said. "My first time to New York City, I'll never forget, was in mid-October after the towers had been hit."
He spoke of how the first responders came to the aid of Coloradans who happened to be in New York City on the day of the attack.
"This is a sea to shining sea moment, a sea to shining sea promise, a sea to shining sea obligation," Gardner said.
