Source: http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1174653984233440.xml&coll=1

House bill would make U.S. pay for 9/11 responders' health care
Measure co-sponsored by Fossella also would reopen Victim Compensation Fund

Friday, March 23, 2007

By LISA SCHNEIDER
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Thousands of Islanders stand to benefit from a bill introduced in Congress yesterday that calls for federally funded medical care and compensation for those who became ill or were injured as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) co-sponsored the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which, if passed, would provide federal funding for medical care and long-term medical monitoring of everyone exposed to the toxic dust on and after Sept. 11, 2001.

It also would reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund, which closed in December 2003.

"We've lost many Staten Islanders," Fossella said yesterday. "We also had people who valiantly responded who are seeing their quality of life greatly diminished."