Senate to Vote on 9/11 Victim Compensation Bill Next Week - Tell Your Senators How to Vote

After an attempt by to pass a permanent extension of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund unanimously was stymied on Wednesday, Senate leaders announced that the chamber will vote to send the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Thursday that he had secured an agreement from all senators to bypass a cloture motion on the bill that would extend debate and instead hold the following votes on Tuesday afternoon:

•  An amendment expected to be offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to offset funding for the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) with spending restrictions.
• An amendment expected to be offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to shorten the authorization timeframe for the VCF to require future oversight & authorization by Congress.
• Passage of the underlying bill, the Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act (H.R. 1327). The bill is named after several 9/11 first responders who died of illnesses related to their work at Ground Zero in New York City.

Assuming the amendments offered by Paul & Lee fail as expected, Senate passage of the bill would send it to the president's desk to be signed into law. If either amendment is adopted it would have to go back to the House, which passed the bill on a bipartisan 402-12.

What would the bill do?

The Never Forget the Heroes Act (H.R. 1327) would reauthorize and extend the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through FY2090. It would also allow the filing of claims through October 2089 and require the VCF’s policies and procedures to be reassessed at least once every five years.

Under current law, the VCF is authorized through FY2020 but it is experiencing a funding shortfall and benefits cut because of an influx of claims. This bill would require VCF claimants to be reimbursed for the amount by which their benefit claim was reduced on the basis of insufficient funding.

It’s unknown how much a reauthorizing the fund through FY2090 would cost, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) only projects the cost of legislation for a 10-year budget window. The CBO estimates that passing the bill would cost $10.18 billion over the 2019-2029 period.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: US Navy Photo by Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres / Creative Commons)