Washington (AFP) - The US Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to extend funding for first responders and others injured during the September 11 attacks, compensating through 2092 those who helped rescue people and remove debris in hazardous conditions.
The measure, which provides for billions of dollars in funding including about $10 billion over the next decade, passed 97 to 2. It has already cleared the House and now heads to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.
Permanent reauthorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund ends a painful chapter during which ailing first responders, and the relatives of those who have already died, came to Congress pleading with lawmakers to extend the funding.
Several 9/11 responders were in the Senate gallery to witness the vote, and they defied Senate rules to cheer and applaud shortly before the final votes were cast.
The cause has been championed by comedian and former talk show host Jon Stewart, who castigated lawmakers during emotional testimony in June.
Stewart, during the high-profile hearing, sat alongside 9/11 responders like Luis Alvarez who urged Congress to replenish the depleted fund.
Alvarez died two weeks after his testimony, following a battle with cancer that doctors believe was linked to his time spent at Ground Zero when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
"Congress can never repay these men, women and families for their sacrifices," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
"But we can do our small part to try and make our heroes whole."
The original fund from 2001 to 2004 paid out some $7 billion to compensate the relatives of 2,880 people who died on 9/11, plus an additional 2,680 injured individuals.
Congress replenished the fund in 2011 and 2015 to help thousands more people, and it was due to stop accepting new claims in late 2020.
But last February the fund's special master, Rupa Bhattacharyya, said there was "insufficient funding" to continue to compensate all pending claims and those projected to be filed by the end of 2020.
The current bill extends the compensation for decades, and allows distribution of "such sums as may be necessary."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the 9/11 responders were not celebrating Tuesday, but saw it as "a day of relief," after spending years asking for the funds to be reauthorized.
"Thank God those excuses, those delays end today for good, and our first responders can go home... to tend to their own health (and) the health of their brothers and sisters who are suffering and ailing," Schumer said.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful from New York, noted how 10,000 people have been certified with 9/11-related cancers.
Last week a funeral was held for Richard Driscoll, whom Gillibrand described as the 200th New York firefighter to succumb to a 9/11 illness.
