While the nation pauses today to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks 14 years ago in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pa., as well as the service members dispatched to the Middle East who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is concern that the victim compensation fund following the attacks will soon run out.
Family members of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001 said their chief concern is to ensure that Congress reauthorizes more money to pay for claims and continued healthcare. The latest statistics released on Wednesday by the Victim Compensation Fund’s (VCF) special master, Sheila Birnbaum, show that more than $1.44 billion has been allocated for awards. That figure is a little more than half of the original $2.775 billion fund.
The VCF fund master said that of the 14,618 eligibility claims that could be decided, 12,150 have been approved. So far, compensation—a second part of the process—has been decided for 6,285 victims, the vast majority of whom were responders. The highest award has been $1,133,466, with the lowest award totaling $10,000.
The VCF was created under the James Zaderoga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 and it is set to expire in October 2016. Without reauthorization, advocates said there won’t be enough money to compensate the remaining claimants.
“I believe the VCF is working diligently to improve the statistics,” said John Feal, founder of the 9/11 advocacy group FealGood Foundation. “But it’s hard to sell (this idea) to a fragile community desperately in need of compensation with the cloud of not enough money hanging over them.”
A reauthorization bill currently in Congress calls for renewing and making permanent the VCF as well as the medical program that monitors and treats more than 72,000 first responders and other victims. The bill already has 125 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate.
