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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 16 February 2019
9/11 fund running out of money for those with illnesses

By KAREN MATTHEWS duce legislation to make
Associated Press the compensation fund
NEW YORK (AP) — The permanent and to com-
compensation fund for vic- pensate all legitimate
tims of 9/11 is running out of claimants. "Our bill would
money and will cut future restore any cuts to awards,
payments by 50 to 70 per- ensure that future eligible
cent, officials announced recipients are fully com-
Friday. pensated, and make the
September 11th Victim VCF program permanent,"
Compensation Fund spe- the lawmakers said.
cial master Rupa Bhat- The collapse of the trade
tacharyya said she was center in 2001 sent a cloud
"painfully aware of the in- of thick dust billowing over
equity of the situation" but Lower Manhattan. Fires
stressed that awarding burned for weeks. Thou-
some funds for every valid sands of construction work-
claim would be preferable ers, police officers, firefight-
to sending some legitimate ers and others spent time
claimants away empty- working in the soot, often
handed. "I could not abide without proper respiratory
a plan that would at the protection.
end of the day leave some In the 17 years since, many
claimants uncompensat- have seen their health de-
ed," Bhattacharyya said. In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, with the skeleton of the World Trade Center twin towers in the cline, some with respira-
Nearly 40,000 people have background, New York City firefighters work amid debris on Cortlandt St. after the terrorist attacks. tory or digestive-system
applied to the federal fund Associated Press ailments that appeared
for people with illnesses po- almost immediately, others
tentially related to being officials estimate it would 50 percent of their prior val- and injured 9/11 respond- with illnesses that devel-
at the World Trade Cen- take another $5 billion to ue. Valid claims received ers and survivors who were oped as they aged, includ-
ter site, the Pentagon or pay pending claims and after that date will be paid promised, and have been ing cancer. Scientists can't
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the claims that officials an- at just 30 percent. counting on, being fully say definitively whether
after the 2001 terror attacks ticipate will be submitted Members of Congress re- compensated for the losses toxins at the site gave
there, and about 19,000 of before the fund's Decem- sponded to Friday's an- they have suffered," Demo- people cancer. One study
those claims are pending. ber 2020 deadline. nouncement by vowing to cratic Reps. Jerry Nadler published last year found
Nearly $5 billion in benefits Absent that funding, of- reauthorize the compensa- and Carolyn Maloney and that overall mortality rates
have been awarded out of ficials determined that tion fund. Republican Peter King said among nearly 30,000 res-
the $7.3 billion fund. pending claims submitted "This is devastating news in a statement. cue and recovery workers
Bhattacharyya said fund by Feb. 1 would be paid at to the thousands of sick They said they would intro- weren't elevated. q

Washington lawmakers advance limits on vaccine exemptions

By RACHEL LA CORTE day-care centers based on Four percent of Washing-
Associated Press medical, religious and per- ton secondary school stu-
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — sonal or philosophical be- dents have non-medical
Washington state lawmak- liefs. Unless an exemption is vaccine exemptions, the
ers advanced a measure claimed, a child is required state Department of Health
Friday that would remove to be vaccinated against said. Of those, 3.7 percent
parents' ability to claim a or show proof of acquired of the exemptions are per-
personal or philosophical immunity for nearly a dozen sonal, and the rest are reli-
exemption to vaccinating diseases — including po- gious.
their school-age children lio, whooping cough and In Clark County — an area
for measles as the Pacific mumps — before they can just north of Portland, Or-
Northwest struggles with an attend school or a child egon, where all but one of
outbreak of the contagious care center. the Washington cases are
virus. Hundreds of people who concentrated — 6.7 per-
The House Health Care and oppose ending the ex- cent of kindergartners had
Wellness Committee ap- emptions, including envi- a non-medical exemption
proved House Bill 1638 on In this Feb. 8, 2019, file photo, people hold signs at a rally at the ronmental activist Robert for the 2017-18 school year,
a 10-5 vote. The full House Capitol in Olympia, Wash., to oppose a proposed bill that would F. Kennedy Jr., showed up health officials said.
remove parents' ability to claim a philosophical exemption to
could vote on it in the com- opt their school-age children out of the combined measles, at a public hearing on the California removed person-
ing weeks. mumps and rubella vaccine. legislation last week. al belief vaccine exemp-
The legislation comes amid Associated Press A broader measure intro- tions for children in both
an outbreak that has sick- duced in the state Sen- public and private schools
ened more than 50 people Washington state and four al or other beliefs," accord- ate, which would not allow in 2015 after a measles
in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon. ing to the National Confer- personal or philosophical outbreak at Disneyland
and led Washington Gov. Washington is among 17 ence of State Legislatures. exemptions to be granted sickened 147 people and
Jay Inslee to declare a states, including Oregon, Washington now allows for any required school spread across the U.S. and
state of emergency. Health that allow some type of vaccination exemptions vaccinations, is scheduled into Canada. Vermont also
officials have reported at non-medical vaccine ex- for children at public or for a public hearing next abandoned its personal ex-
least 54 known cases in emption for "personal, mor- private schools or licensed Wednesday. emption in 2015.q