9/11 Health Bill Passes!

(This is a video of the Senate passing the 9/11 Health Bill.)

On Wednesday, December 22, 2010 the Senate passed the 9/11 Health Bill after a last minute decision that was negotiated by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), because Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) kept on putting a block up for the passing of this bill because he felt the cost of the measure was to high.  The original cost of the bill was $7.4 billion for eight years, but after the negotiation the bill provides $4.3 billion over five years to cover the cost of medical care for rescue workers and others who became sick from breathing in toxic fumes, dust, and smoke after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.  And now that the cost of the bill has changed, Sen. Tom Coburn is satisfied and he expressed it by saying, “Every American recognizes the heroism of the 9/11 first responders,” he said. “But it is not compassionate to help one group while robbing future generations of opportunity.”  The new version of the bill provides $1.8 billion over the next five years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero.  And then legislators will set aside $2.5 billion to reopen the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund for five years to provide payment for job and economic losses.  And 10% of the cost for this bill be paid by New York. 

But this isn't the first time the 9/11 Health Bill has come up in the House of Representatives.  Back in July of this year the House had to vote on weather they should pass this bill and because the Republicans have majority the bill did not get the 2/3 votes for it to be passed.  So Representative of New York, Anthony Weiner (D-NY), had "a little episode" where he told the Republicans how he felt about them not passing the bill, "It's Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans, rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes! It is a shame, a shame!". 

( This a video of the Democrat representative of New York, Anthony Weiner, defending the 9/11 Health Bill against GOP, (which is the Republican Party) attacks.)

(Picture of Anthony Weiner responding to attacks on 9/11 Health Bill.)

And now that the bill has passed finally many people are happy, including our president, who thinks the health bill is a great idea and he was very happy to sign it.

(President Obama speaking about his views on the 9/11 Health Bill.)


How this relates to class:
This story relates to AP class because at the beginning of the year we were talking about how a bill gets passed and how it takes two-thirds of the House of Representatives to pass a bill.  And we also talked about how Republicans are conservatitives, which means their thoughts on how the government should be ran are more old fashioned than those of the Democrats who are more liberal.