Urging the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare a long-term, comprehensive plan to medically monitor all individuals who were exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and to treat all those sick or injured.

Madam Speaker, today on the House floor, we passed a very important bill to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security. Tonight, we must take time to remember the horrific event that made our Nation realize that we needed a Department of Homeland Security to begin with, the attacks of September 11, 2001.

We will never forget that fateful day and the thousands of people who lost their lives, and now we know that thousands more lost their health.

We must not forget the firefighters, police officers, EMTs and other first responders who bravely rushed to save the lives of others, even as everyone else was running in the opposite direction.

Within hours of the collapse of the World Trade Center, those first responders labored alongside hard hats and average New Yorkers without regard for their own health or safety. They spent countless hours working the pit, sifting through the rubble, hoping against hope that they would be able to rescue someone trapped deep below.

Unfortunately, as the days went on and the mission turned from a rescue-and-recovery mission to a cleanup site, these brave men and women stayed. While they labored, most were not given the proper respiratory equipment, and all were given inaccurate information about the quality of the air they were breathing. They were told that the ``air was safe to breathe.'' They were told that it was not a health hazard to be there.

Let us take a closer look: This air, the air enveloped by this massive toxic dust cloud, they said was safe to breathe. Unfortunately, we now know better. We know more about what was in that cloud, a poisonous cocktail of thousands of tons of coarse and fine particulate matter, pulverized cement and glass and other toxic pollutants.

To the mix were added 24,000 gallons of burning jet fuel and plastics, which created a dense plume of black smoke containing cancer- causing volatile organic compounds, dioxins and hydrocarbons, a specific combination of toxins probably never seen before and hopefully that we will never see again.

And all of this went into the mouths, throats and lungs of tens of thousands of workers while they tirelessly worked long shifts, not thinking first of their health but of serving this great Nation.

Later in this hour, I am going to share with you the stories of the individual brave men and women who worked at ground zero, but now let me just share one about the dust.

This is a story from Denise Bellingham of Long Island, New York. In her own words, as reported in the New York Daily News, she said, ``The air was indescribable,'' as you can see. ``You couldn't eat anything that wasn't covered with dust. We had paper masks, but they were no good. Condensation from breathing turned the mask into mud. It was worse to breathe with it on. We got respirators about a week into it, but they were not fit-tested. They just came in boxes, and we grabbed one that might fit.

``I worked more than 300 hours at ground zero. I considered it a thank you to America, a chance to do something for my country and for my fellow New Yorkers and for my co-workers who were buried in the rubble.

``We never expected anything to go wrong. Every day we were told the air was safe to breathe. Working down there as a team gave us healing. We could feel all the angels, all the people who had died there.''

Again, that was one of the personal accounts of work at ground zero, as reported in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Daily News series on the Forgotten Heroes of 9/11.

Now, well over 5 years after 9/11, we are seeing the potentially deadly effects on the thousands who worked around ground zero. This is in addition to the untold numbers of residents, area office workers and school children also exposed to the toxins of ground zero but have never received any medical monitoring or assistance from the Federal Government.

We have numerous peer-reviewed, scientific studies linking people's sicknesses to the toxins of ground zero.

Last year we learned from Mount Sinai, an important hospital in my district, and the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program that 70 percent of 9/11 responders suffered respiratory problems and 60 percent are still sick as a direct result of their work at ground zero. Making matters worse, nearly 40 percent of those screened have no health insurance, and for those who do have insurance, work-related illnesses are most often not covered.

We also learned from the fire department that the average New York City firefighter has lost 12 years of lung capacity following their service at ground zero, and many have been forced to retire or be reassigned due to their 9/11 illnesses.

And just 2 days ago, a new report from the fire department and Einstein College of Medicine in New York clearly linked World Trade Center dust to a rare type of lung-scarring disease, sarcoidosis, which involves an inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in the lungs. In some cases, the illness gets progressively worse and can be fatal.

Let there be no doubt. We now have scientific proof that the 9/11 health crisis is real, and that it is truly a matter of life and death.

Tonight I want everyone listening to understand this. The 9/11 health crisis is not only a New York City problem. The attacks on 9/11 were attacks against our Nation, not just New York. The whole country was touched; and, in the aftermath, people from every State in the Nation were exposed to these toxins while they assisted in the massive rescue recovery and cleanup efforts. Whether you came from California, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Alaska, you breathed in the same toxic air.

Last month, Congressman Vito Fossella and I released a report showing that Americans from all 50 States were exposed to the aftermath of 9/11 and have serious concerns about their health.

This map shows how many people from each State enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry, which is a comprehensive health survey of those most heavily exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero. Those who enrolled answered a 30-minute telephone survey about where they were and what they did on 9/11, and they were asked to report the status of their health. This will allow health professionals to compare the health of those most exposed

to the events of 9/11 with the health of the general population.

Over 71,000 people who met the eligibility requirements of direct exposure decided to enroll in the registry. We know that there are an estimated 410,000 people who would have been eligible, meaning that 410,000 people were likely directly exposed to the deadly toxins of 9/ 11.

Of the 71,000 people who were concerned enough about their health to enroll, over 8,000 live in New Jersey, over 1,200 live in California, another 1,200 live in Florida, 156 live in Arizona, 350 live in Georgia, 238 in Maryland, and 341 live in Texas. At least 28 people came from as far away as Hawaii.

The list goes on and on, but the message of this map is clear: This is a national emergency, and it deserves a strong Federal response.

Over 1,000 people are from Pennsylvania, including Ryan McCormick, who came to Ground Zero from Representative Dent's district in Pennsylvania. His father, David McCormick, sent me an e-mail explaining that Ryan was a paramedic for University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, who came to the aid of New York in our country in our time of need.

In his 5 days at Ground Zero, he served in many capacities. A year and a half later, he came down with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He has undergone a great deal of chemotherapy and radiation, but nothing has worked. We sincerely thank Ryan for his service to our country, and we pledge that we will not forget his service or his health needs.

I also thank him for his hard work in getting the message out to country and Congress that we cannot forget the heroes of 9/11, and I am told that he is with us tonight in the gallery. We want to personally thank you for your service and your courage.

With a problem of this scope, what we need right now is a plan from the current administration on how they intend to medically monitor everyone who was exposed to the deadly toxins at Ground Zero, and we need a plan to treat everyone who is sick. That is the least that we can do for these heroes and heroines.

Along with my colleagues in New York and our entire delegation, I have been calling for a plan for years now. We don't have a plan yet, but we have made some important progress.

After a long fight with the administration, in May, 2003, we were successful in securing $90 million for medical monitoring for responders.

Then, with the leadership of Representative Shays, the Government Reform Committee started a series of important congressional hearings bringing this topic to light.

Then, after the President actually rescinded, they took out of the budget $125 million meant for New York recovery efforts, the New York delegation fought to have the $125 million restored in October of 2005. Of that, $50 million was set aside for workers' compensation, and $75 million was for medical monitoring and treatment. This was the first- ever Federal funding for treatment of sick 9/11 responders.

Unfortunately, then we had to fight just as hard to get that $75 million out of the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services and to the doctors and patients that need to be monitored and treated.

Finally, in late fall of this year, the $75 million was finally released to help the men and women who helped so many on 9/11.

While we were fighting to get that funding released, we took a step closer to having a coordinated Federal response when the Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. John Howard, was appointed at the request of the New York congressional delegation as the Federal coordinator for 9/11 health issues in February of 2006.

Since his appointment, we have seen the release of the first clinical guidelines on the physical health effects many have suffered from the World Trade Center attacks and a draft of autopsy guidelines.

We have also seen Assistant Secretary John Agwunobi appointed as leader of a task force on 9/11 health within the Department of Health and Human Services. While we were promised a plan from this new task force between February of this year, Congress has yet to see one. We still do not have a plan from the administration to medically monitor everyone exposed to those deadly toxins and treat those who are sick as a result of exposure in their hard work at Ground Zero.

That is why, along with Congressman Fossella, I have introduced a resolution which calls on the administration to create a comprehensive long-term plan to medically monitor everyone exposed and treat those who have become sick.

Along with many Members of Congress, I have also introduced the first comprehensive authorizing legislation to care for both the health and economic well-being of all those affected. Named after New York City Police Detective James Zadroga, one of the first 9/11 responders to have his death directly attributed to his exposure to the toxins of Ground Zero, this legislation combines and builds upon two pieces of legislation that we have previously introduced in the 108th and 109th Congress, the Remember 9/11 Health Act and the James Zadroga Act to reopen the Victims' Compensation Fund.

H.R. 1638, the James Zadroga Act, the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, has four main components. It provides, first, for medical monitoring and treatment; secondly, compensation; thirdly, research; and, fourthly, coordination.

To provide medical monitoring and treatment, the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act continues and expands the current programs at three Centers for Excellence dedicated to 9/11 health issues to all people exposed to the toxins of 9/11, including first responders, rescue, recovery and cleanup workers, area residents, office workers and students. It would ensure that everyone exposed is monitored, and everyone who is sick is treated.

With regard to compensation, the legislation reopens the September 11 Victims' Compensation Fund to provide individuals who have become sick with 9/11 compensation for their loss. We can't make a person whole by helping them with their health but not addressing their economic needs.

For research, H.R. 1638 directs the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct or support diagnostic and treatment research for health conditions that are associated with the exposure to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

To ensure coordination, the bill establishes the 9/11 Health Emergency Coordinating Council for the purpose of discussing, examining and formulating recommendations to improve coordination between the Federal, State and local problems and getting those governments on all three levels to work together.

Passing long-term comprehensive legislation like this, and securing funding in the meantime, has proven to be a long, hard fight. Those who are sick from 9/11 are fighting for their lives, and we cannot forget them.

I stand here tonight to promise that I will not rest until we have a system in place that medically monitors everyone exposed to the deadly toxins and treats who is sick. On 9/11, we had many, many people rush to save the lives of others, and many worked for days to help others.

One of my colleagues has a constituent who is suffering from his exposure. He has been treated with chemotherapy. He, I understand, is here in the gallery tonight, up here. We applaud him and thank him for his service. Our prayers, our thoughts, our hope, our work to pass this legislation is for you and for other workers like you who went to help others after the deadly attacks.

I now yield to my good friend and colleague from the great State of Pennsylvania that had over 1,000 of their residents now registered in the official registry of those who worked at Ground Zero and whom we need to monitor for the next 20 or 30 years.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his statement. I thank him for working so hard not only for Ryan McCormick, his constituent, but all the men and women who came from every State in this Nation, including Alaska and Hawaii, to work at Ground Zero and to try to help save lives and to try to clean up the debris that was there.

As I mentioned earlier, the New York Daily News Editorial Board won the Pulitzer Prize for its groundbreaking series of editorials entitled, ``9/11, The Forgotten Victims.''

Now, I would like to share with you an excerpt from this award- winning series. It is called, ``Abandoned Heroes.''

``They cough. They wheeze. Their heads and faces pound with the pressure of swollen sinuses. They lose their breath with minor exertion. They suffer the suffocation of asthma and diseases that attack the very tissues of their lungs. They endure acid reflux, a painful indigestion that never goes away. They are haunted by the mental and emotional traumas of having witnessed horror. Many are too disabled to work, and some have died.''

Like Ryan McCormick, who is with us tonight in the Gallery, there were many other heroes. Another hero was Christopher Hynes, and I would like to discuss him, from this award-winning series:

``For Christopher Hynes, life as a forgotten victim of 9/11 is a battle of breath. Five years ago, Hynes was a 30-year-old, healthy, nonsmoking New York City police officer. Then, in September and October 2001, he was assigned to Ground Zero duty, spending more than 100 hours patrolling the area of the smoldering rubble of the Twin Towers. The air was thick with dust and smoky particles.

``Today, Hynes, married and the father of a 4-year-old son, has sarcoidosis, a disease that scars lung tissues, and asthma, a disease that inflames and obstructs the airways of the lungs. He coughs constantly and cannot exert himself without losing breath. He survives with the help of steroids and performs restricted duties for the police department.

`` `I will probably have this for the rest of my life,' he says.''

We must not forget him. We must provide him with health care and monitoring and treatment for the rest of his life.

Mr. Speaker, I now would like to recognize my good friend and colleague, Gerald Nadler, who represents the Ground Zero area and has worked tirelessly on this issue. I grant the gentleman 7 minutes.

I thank the gentleman for his hard work and for his statement and for being here tonight. I know that he has many constituents such as Congressman Dent, and we thank Ryan McCormick for being with us in the Chamber tonight.

I want to talk about another victim of 9/11, Winston Lodge. He was written about in ``The Making of a Health Disaster'' which was originally published July 25, 2006; and I quote from the Daily News.

``For Winston Lodge, life as a forgotten victim of 9/11 is the torment of chronically inflamed and bleeding sinuses.

``5 years ago, Lodge was a 44-year old iron worker who helped build things. Then, called on to help dismantle the pile, he pitched in at Ground Zero for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for a month.

``Today, Lodge's nose runs constantly and often bleeds. He suffers headaches from sinus pressure, has shortness of breath from chronic bronchitis, and has acid reflux, a painful heartburn. He has undergone surgery to relieve sinus difficulties and is waiting for a second operation.

``Since 2004, Lodge, a divorced father of four, has not been able to work; and he says, and I quote, ``I am sick to my bones, and I need help.''

A number of people have worked very hard on this and held hearings to focus on this issue, including Mrs. Clinton and, very recently, Ed Towns had one in Brooklyn, New York, about the health impacts on his constituents in Brooklyn. He held another one here in Washington.

But the first person to call a series of hearings on the health impacts of 9/11 was my colleague from Connecticut, Christopher Shays. Under the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, he held hearings in New York, many here in Washington, that helped focus the light on the need for everyone to be monitored who was exposed to those deadly toxins and everyone who is sick to be treated. We thank you for holding those hearings and for joining us tonight in this special order. Thank you, Mr. Shays.

Well, I thank my colleague and good friend from Connecticut; and I thank him particularly for the public hearings that really focused the need and, I think, helped us achieve partial funding, the $25 million that we got in the President's budget. As we know, Jerry and the New York delegation, along with Senators Clinton and Schumer, we have worked very hard to have $50 million added to the supplemental budget for the health needs of the 9/11 workers. This has been a delegation-wide priority on both sides of the aisle led by our two Senators and by the entire delegation.

I remember your hearings very vividly, the men and woman who came and testified who were sick. They came with their pills. They came with their coughs. Some could hardly breathe. They could hardly talk.

I want to share another story with my colleagues of Jeffrey Endean, who was highlighted in the Daily News articles as life as a forgotten victim of 9/11. And he says, 5 years ago, he was a 51-year old Division Commander for Morris County New Jersey's Sheriff Office. He was healthy, able to run several miles.

Then he was pressed into Ground Zero service because he had experience helping first responders cope at horrific scenes. He worked 12 hours a day, from September 11 to November 22, 2001.

Today, he has reactive airways dysfunction syndrome, RADS, a rare irritant-induced form of asthma. His sinuses often bleed. He is prone to headaches and upper respiratory infections.

Married, the father of three and grandfather of three, he retired in 2003; and he says, ``I start the day with four to five inhalers and a pill. Will I have cancer at 66? Will I live my life as long as I should?''

That is the question, and that is why Jerry and Chris and I have worked so hard to have monitoring. And we need to continue this monitoring treatment not just for the next 5 years but doctors say for the next 20 or 30 years. New diseases are coming up. Pulmonary fibrosis, where the fibers in the lungs, they can hardly breathe. It's like an iron lung.

And, Jerry, you were at those hearings. Can you comment and add to what Chris said about the hearings? And Jerry and I and Chris really represent many people who work there, the residents. We need to get the residents into the registry, too.

Jerry, I have his picture in my office. He found the flag, the flag that was flown around the world from Ground Zero, and they will not acknowledge that he worked there. He got awards. And what struck me about him and many others, Jerry and Chris, if you will remember, at that hearing they testified they would do it again even though they know they had lost their health.

It is a scandal. An absolute scandal. And at the hearing remember the Health Commissioner testified that Zadroga did not die from 9/11? I couldn't believe it.

Our legislation calls for that all the residents should be covered. But remember, at the last hearing that Congressman Towns had, Agwunobi testified that we no longer needed a plan, that he wasn't going to give us a plan.

They said they would give us a plan in February. Where is it? That is why we have a resolution calling for a plan on how we are going to monitor and treat these heroes and heroines.

That is very true. But I also want to build on what he said, that people are going to be watching how we treat these first responders. God forbid that we have another 9/11 attack or another terrorist attack, they are going to know that we weren't there to provide, at the very least, the health care and the monitoring that the heroes and heroines need, and that is a very important precedent. It is not only, do we need to take care of these men and women, Mr. McCormick, who is with us tonight in the Gallery, but we have to send a message that we are going to be there for our first responders.

I know. There were lots of terrible mistakes that are causing people their health now.

And in closing in this final minute, I just want to underscore that we as a Nation must not forget the firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and all the other responders, volunteers and residents who bravely rushed down to save lives even as everyone else was running in the opposite direction. We must not forget the rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who stayed on for months at Ground Zero in service to our country. And we must not forget the residents, area workers and school children who lived, worked and studied through the toxins and have now become sick.

Once again, I stand on this floor of Congress and note that this was an attack against our Nation, and we know that the Nation responded. Every State has workers that were affected by the deadly toxins at Ground Zero. Every State had residents who rushed to our State and rushed down to Ground Zero to help. We will never forget them, and we will not stop. Both sides of the aisle, we are committed to making sure that everyone who was exposed to the deadly toxins is treated and everyone who is sick is going to get medical care. That is the least that we can do for these brave men and women.

I thank my colleagues and especially Ryan McCormick, who is here with us tonight, for coming. And I thank you for your work not only tonight on this Special Order tonight but throughout your year in Congress. Since 9/11, it has been a priority of yours. And my constituents, the thousands that were affected thank you for your efforts, and I thank you for having this opportunity of joining me in this Special Order.

I thank the gentlelady.

Mr. Speaker, when the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, the towers sent up a plume of poisonous dust that blanketed Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and parts of Queens and into New Jersey. A toxic mixture of lead, dioxin, asbestos, mercury, benzene and other hazardous contaminants swirled around the site of the disaster and far afield as rescue workers labored furiously in the wreckage, many without adequate protective

gear. Thousands of first responders inhaled this poisonous dust before it settled onto and into countless homes, shops and office buildings.

Immediately after the collapse, and for the weeks after that, the Environmental Protection Agency had the responsibility of being the lead agency responsible for ensuring the safety of the hundreds and thousands of people who live and work and attend school in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City, and of the first responders.

Instead, the EPA and the Federal Government betrayed the people who live in New York and betrayed all the first responders, the police officers and the fire officers, and the volunteers from all over who came to help us clean up. It betrayed them in two ways.

First, the EPA assured all that the environmental conditions in New York were not hazardous and that the health of those near the plume was not in danger. Former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman irresponsibly declared within a few days after 9/11 that the air was safe to breathe and the water was safe to drink, and EPA continued saying that when they had plenty of data to say it wasn't true. The EPA and the Federal Government lied, and because of these lies, people are sick and dying today. The air was not safe. There is no doubt the EPA initiated two separate cover-ups that go on to this day.

For years, the Federal Government, the State government, the city government insisted that there was no evidence, no proof that people who were getting sick, that fire officers and police officers who had annual exams and had been healthy all the time and who suddenly could not breathe and could not work, this had nothing to do with the World Trade Center. You couldn't prove it was because they were poisoned by the atmosphere.

It was only last September, in September 2006, 5 years after the World Trade Center collapsed, that this cover-up unraveled.

A study released last September by Mount Sinai Hospital found that of the more than 9,000 first responders examined in that study, 70 percent suffered health problems related to their work at Ground Zero.

The evidence continues to pile up. Yesterday, the New York Times reported a clear link between World Trade Center dust and life- threatening disease. And yet, until very recently, the Health Department and the City of New York continued to deny that this was the case.

The City of New York continues to contest every workers comp case filed because, obviously, these are all malingerers; nothing was true.

The article in yesterday's Time cites reports by doctors from the fire department of New York and the Albert Einstein Medical College which again confirm what we have known, that all honest people have known for years: that we are facing a major health crisis as a result of September 11th. And we know that these conditions are very often long-lasting, life-lasting and that they go on and on.

In the days and weeks after 9/11, New York City firefighters and police officers joined with workers and volunteers from all 50 States to aid in the colossal rescue and recovery effort. But more than 5 years later, the Federal Government has not begun to do its part.

To this day, there has been no comprehensive program by the Federal Government to monitor, as Mrs. Maloney said, to monitor the health of all the victims, the firefighters, the cleanup workers. There has been no provision of medical services.

The President finally, in this year's budget that we are now debating, proposes supplying $25 million. And yet we know that the cost of caring for these people will be probably in the neighborhood of $300 million per year for the indefinite future.

For every day that goes by, more and more people become sick and are diagnosed with illnesses that their doctors attribute to the contamination of the World Trade Center. That is why a number of pieces of legislation have been introduced. For instance, Senators Clinton, Menendez, Schumer and Kennedy, and in this House, Congressman Towns, Engel, Weiner, and I have introduced the 9/11 Heroes Health Improvement Act of 2007, which would provide more than $1.9 billion in Federal funding for medical and mental health screening, testing, monitoring and treatment grants for institutions that provide care to those whose health was affected in the 9/11 attacks, for the next 6 years, this would cover.

And that is just the first cover-up. The second cover-up is that we know that the World Trade Center contamination settled in Lower Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in Queens, probably in Jersey City, in many neighborhoods, buildings and onto streets. Nature cleans up the outdoor air, but it doesn't clean up the indoor air. The rain washes away dust in the outdoors; the wind blows it away. But nothing removes the indoors. People were told, don't worry, it is safe to move back to Lower Manhattan. In high school, students were told to go back after a week. And yet, we know that the indoor contamination was not dealt with properly. We know that, unless properly cleaned up, professionally cleaned up, indoor spaces are still contaminated; that even if you went in, as the New York City Department of Health urged, and said, ``If you see World Trade Center dust in your apartment, clean it up with a wet mop and a wet rag,'' and the EPA echoed this advice. This, too, was a betrayal, because not only is that advice illegal because we know that much of that dust had asbestos in it, and it is illegal to remove asbestos-laden material, to move it, to touch it, to deal with it unless you are properly licensed to, certified to do so and wearing equipment. But EPA and the City of New York Health Department told people to remove it with a wet mop and a wet rag.

We also know that, if you did that, besides being illegal, you probably inhaled some of it. And the very often immigrant workers hired by fly-by-night firms, who, not professionally, did this probably inhaled a lot of it. And we also know that, if you did it, you didn't thoroughly do it; that the dust settled into the porous wood surfaces and into the carpets and the drapes and behind the refrigerator and into the HVAC systems. And where the toddler crawls on the rug today and loosens that dust into the air, that toddler is being poisoned today. We probably have thousands or tens of thousands of people all over Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens and Jersey City who are being poisoned today and who we will see come down with asbestosis and mesothelioma and lung cancer 15 years from now, because it has never been properly cleaned up because the EPA continues to deny its responsibility.

The EPA ombudsman's office was called in at my request in February and March of 2002, and held hearings to see what could be done about this. What happened? The EPA abolished the ombudsman's office.

The EPA set up, at Senator Clinton's request, a scientific advisory body to look into this. They started saying, ``Hey, wait a minute. We have got a major problem here.'' What happened? They were disbanded by the EPA.

The EPA inspector general's office looked into this, and came out with a report in August of 2003, saying that thousands of people are endangered by this; that what we have to do is randomly inspect indoor spaces, apartments and work spaces in concentric circles going out from the World Trade Center so that we can find out where the contamination still exists, maybe 3 blocks in one direction, maybe 3 miles in another direction. But, wherever it is, map it, delineate it, and wherever it is, go in on a building-by-building basis, clean it up so that people are not continually poisoned indefinitely.

Clean it up, so that people are not continually poisoned indefinitely. What happened to that report? It was ignored by the EPA, and the people in the Inspector General's Office are no longer there.

And again, at Senator Clinton's insistence and because Carolyn Maloney and I and others insisted, the EPA set up another scientific advisory body in 2005. What happened? They started saying, you know, the Inspector General is right and what the EPA has done is inadequate. What happened? They were disbanded before they could make official recommendations.

To this day, we know that we are poisoning large numbers of people continually and piling up unnecessary cases

of fatal diseases that will come out in 10 and 15 years because the Federal Government and the city government of New York has ignored this problem and covered it up.

So, in summary, we have two separate cover-ups, one of which unraveled only within the last year. We are trying to deal with it. We still don't have the funds to deal with it. The Federal Government, the Bush administration has ignored it, basically. They have not come out with proper recommendations.

Some of us, Congresswoman Maloney, Congressman Shays, myself, Senator Clinton, have made legislative proposals for long-term care and monitoring of the medical conditions caused that will be with us for the next 50 years. We don't have administration support. We haven't enacted that legislation. We must.

But at least, because that cover-up unraveled last year, we're talking about it. But that second cover-up, they're still denying it. The City of New York is still denying it. The Federal Government is still denying it. And until they admit it, until we do the proper investigation in the way that the Inspector General recommended and look at all the areas and find out where the contamination is and go in and clean it up, and it may cost a couple of billion dollars to do that, but until we do that we will continue poisoning people, we will continue making sure that 10 and 15 and 20 years from now we will have thousands perhaps of unnecessary cases of fatal diseases.

So I say to you, Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Maloney for calling this special order tonight. But I say to you, we must enact a legislation such as Carolyn has talked about, such as I have talked about, such as others have, to put into place systematic means of monitoring and providing medical services for the victims, the first responders. But we must also make sure that the EPA and the Federal Government step up to the plate, unravel that second cover-up, peel it away, see what the problem is, inspect the areas, find out where the contamination still is. And where it still is, go in and on a building by building basis clean it up so that we can know that people can live and work in areas without being poisoned and without coming down with additional diseases.

Without doing this, we are adding to the work of the terrorists. The Federal and city governments are becoming complicit in adding to the victims. It was bad enough the terrorists cost us 3,000 dead that day. The Federal and city government should not be adding to the victims as they still are.

Thank you, Carolyn.

What struck me about the hearings was several things. We've had hearings for a number of years, and I remember the first hearing I attended was presided over by Senator Lieberman, a U.S. Senate hearing back in February of 2002. But none of this has changed. It's 5 years later, and it hasn't changed.

Number one, you see the victims, the first responders, the people who dropped everything they were doing to help, to help victims that we thought people might be still alive under the debris. They weren't. Who then helped with the cleanup to get, who worked on the pile for 40 and 50 days. And we heard story after story of how healthy people were no longer healthy and they could no longer work and they could no longer breathe, how they now had to take 20 and 30 and 40 different pills and medications a day, how they couldn't pay for the medications, how they had lost their jobs, and because they lost their jobs they lost their health coverage and how the workers comp system didn't work for them.

How a hero who was given an award for heroism at the World Trade Center, when he went for workers' comp, they said, Prove you were there.

So the first thing we saw at those hearings were these people testifying about how they selflessly worked, and we know that they did, and how they had been betrayed by every level of government in treating them, by the workers' comp and the State, by the Federal Government.

The second thing was it was clear from the heroic work done by the people at Mount Sinai and the Fire Department of the City of New York, in trying to deal with these sick people and who had to put the funding together for private philanthropic sources, that until last year there was no government funding for any of this whatsoever. Finally we got a few million dollars.

The Health Commissioner testified that. There has been a denial, a straightforward denial, by City and State people because they don't want to admit liability.

The third thing was that even now, even now, when Dr. Agwunobi testified, he said we will have a plan. Well, we haven't seen the plan. We know now that it is going to cost about $300 million a year just to deal with the health conditions of the people we know about. Never mind the cleaning up of the contaminated areas, but just for the first responders, it is going to cost about $300 million a year. The President proposed $25 million, but it was made very clear at the hearing, the last hearing, that the plan that the Federal Government was going to come up with, if they actually come up with a plan, would not deal with residents, would not deal with the health problems of people who are living there, who were beseeched by the City and Federal Government to come back and live and work in lower Manhattan and are suffering because they listened to that.

And that is a scandal also. The other thing that was very clear, and it has been clear from the EPA right up to date, is that the registry has dealt with people who live or who work in lower Manhattan, below Canal Street, as if there was a 30,000-foot high wall along Canal Street or a Star Trek-type force field along Canal Street and across the East River because, after all, anyone who lives north of Canal Street has no problem. And anybody who lives in Brooklyn, where we saw the satellite photos showed the plume went and where Congressman

Weiner testified that at his office 10 miles away, debris was falling on the terrace at his office, and we know it was falling across all these neighborhoods across Brooklyn; we don't have to deal with that. We are going to be studiously ignorant of all the people in these other places outside of lower Manhattan. That was brought out very clearly in Congressman Towns' hearing. And the fact is, we have to look at all these hearings areas and do the job properly.

That is a very good point.

There are a couple of lessons that really should be learned here. One, Abraham Lincoln said, at the end of the Civil War, that you have to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan. We are failing in doing that, when he who shall have borne the battle here are heroes who came in to help, and we are abandoning them.

Second, the EPA had a duty to do the job here. They failed in that duty. And that is a danger for the future. The law provides that the EPA must come in and classify the area and make sure and protect people, and the OSHA laws were enforced in Washington so no one got sick. They weren't enforced in New York, and 50,000 people are sick.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, let me at the outset thank Chairman Lantos for his leadership on this issue in general, human rights. But also especially in the case of Patrick Finucane, which so many of us have cared so deeply about for so many years. He has been a great friend of Ireland as well, and I want to thank him for that.

I also want to thank the original sponsors of this legislation, including my good friends and colleagues, Mr. Engel, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Neal, Mr. King, Mr. Payne, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Crowley, Mr. McNulty and Mr. Rothman and the many others who cosponsored this truly bipartisan resolution.

H. Con. Res. 20, Madam Speaker, calls on the British Government to live up to its commitment as part of the Northern Ireland peace process to implement a public, independent judicial inquiry into the murder of human rights attorney Patrick Finucane. Mr. Finucane, who represented Catholics in Northern Ireland, was gunned down in his home in 1989 in front of his wife and his children. I would note parenthetically his wife was wounded as well.

For years, Madam Speaker, nongovernmental human rights organizations, regional and very much renowned international legal experts, have raised serious allegations that Mr. Finucane's murder resulted from collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces. In 2004, retired Canadian Supreme Court judge Peter Cory, who was appointed by the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom to examine these allegations under the Weston

Park Agreement, reported that sufficient evidence of collusion existed to warrant a full, independent and public judiciary inquiry without delay.

Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, the British Government has yet to comply.

Many of my colleagues know that as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and as chairman of the Helsinki Commission I have held 11 hearings on the peace process in Northern Ireland. Central to each of these hearings has been the ongoing concern about the human rights abuses by members of the police service in Northern Ireland. The Finucane family has testified. Judge Cory has testified. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has testified, as well as many numerous human rights leaders. All have advocated for a special investigation into the possibility of collusion in the Finucane murder.

Beyond this, Madam Speaker, last year, the Irish Parliament passed a resolution calling for an open and independent investigation. Our special envoy, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, has testified before our committee that he and the Bush administration have urged for the establishment of a credible investigation into the Finucane murder. And Congress has supported it as well last year with H. Res. 740 and previously as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act.

Madam Speaker, this resolution could not be more timely. Just last week the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, who testified before our committee in 2004, released a devastating report which confirms that police in Northern Ireland have colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in several murders over the last dozen years. The very fact that a police ombudsman exists, and that a report as revealing as hers can be published underscores that policing in Northern Ireland is, in fact, very different, very much improved than it was when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Further testimony to the advancements and improvements in the policing in Northern Ireland is that just this past Sunday, on January 28, Sinn Fein voted overwhelmingly to move to participate in the community policing system that was set up as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Today, the Independent Monitoring Commission set up in 2004 by the British and Irish Governments to report on paramilitary activity has praised Sinn Fein for its new commitment to policing. When referring to the IRA, the IMC concludes that ``terrorism and violence have been abandoned.''

These developments clearly are greatly welcome, and there is a new optimism that elections for a new, devolved power-sharing government will be held this spring. Yet, Madam Speaker, with reconciliation must come full disclosure of the truth.

The lack of resolution of charges of official collusion in the murder of a defense attorney such as Mr. Finucane leads people to question the government's commitment to accountability and, above all, to justice. His murder symbolizes the depth and danger of official state-sponsored collusion in Northern Ireland and a disregard for the rule of law. It has left victims who deserve answers. And I know, because many of my colleagues and I have all spoken to them, how they want these answers. There will be no closure and there will be no reconciliation without the truth.

As the U.N. Special Rapporteur told us in 1998: ``Harassment and intimidation of defense attorneys goes to the core of the independence of the legal profession and the administration of justice in any society.''

I am also reminded of the riveting testimony offered on this matter at one of my hearings in 1998. Rep. Don Payne, my colleague from NJ, remembers it as well. He was there, when Rosemary Nelson, an attorney for Northern Ireland testified. Mrs. Nelson, who was also a wife and mother, told Congress that defense attorneys in Northern Ireland feared that they could be murdered themselves because no one had been held accountable in the murder of Patrick Finucane. Six months later, after her testimony, Rosemary Nelson was killed, the victim of a car bomb.

Madam Speaker, I would like to again express my deepest condolences to the Finucane family, as well as Rosemary Nelson's family, and thank them for their courageous and tireless efforts on behalf of justice, not only for their loved one, but for all others who have been victims of state-sponsored collusion in Northern Ireland.

Similarly, I would like to acknowledge the work and support from many human rights activists, including Jane Winter of British Irish Rights Watch; Elisa Massimino from Human Rights First, formerly known as Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; Maggie Beirne, Martin O'Brien and Paul Mageean, who have also testified before Congress on behalf of the Committee of the Administration of Justice and have provided very, very useful and timely insights to our committee.

I would again like to thank my cosponsors and again thank Mr. Lantos.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Representative Maloney; and it is really a privilege to be with you and both Jerry Nadler. I know that both of you have been at the forefront of this issue and clearly have been championing it, both of you.

But I particularly want to thank Mrs. Maloney. Because you were the one who, serving on my subcommittee at the time, said we needed to get at this issue. And you're the reason why we ended up having these hearings.

During the last 2 years, as chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, we held four oversight hearings on the federally funded medical monitoring and registry programs that were established following the September 11 terrorist attacks. And you, obviously, and Mr. Nadler, were major participants. The witnesses' testimony at the subcommittee clearly demonstrated the significant health challenges faced by the Ground Zero responders, as well as the need for their continued health monitoring.

You know, nearly 6 years after the cataclysmic attacks on the World Trade Centers, shock waves still emanate from Ground Zero. Diverse and delayed health problems continue to emerge in those exposed to the contaminants and psychological stressors unleashed on September 11, 2001.

Firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, transit workers, construction crews and other first responders, as well as volunteers, came to Ground Zero knowing there would be risks but confident their community would sustain them. These individuals did not just go to work on that day. They went to war.

However, as we know, Federal, State and local health support has not provided the care and comfort they need and rightfully deserve.

After the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, veterans suffering a variety of unfamiliar syndromes faced daunting official resistance to evidence linking multiple low-level toxic exposure to subsequent chronic ill health. In part due to our subcommittee, long-term registrants were improved and an aggressive research agenda was pursued and sick veterans now have some of the benefits, in law, of presumption that wartime exposures cause certain illnesses.

When the front line is not Baghdad but now lower Manhattan, occupational medicine and public health practitioners still have much to learn from that distant Middle East battlefield. Proper diagnosis, effective treatment and fair compensation for the delayed casualties of toxic attacks require vigilance, persistence and a willingness to admit what we do not yet know and might never know about toxic synergies and syndromes. Health surveillance has to be focused and sustained and new treatment approaches have to be tried to restore damaged lives before it is too late. And I fear it really is becoming almost too late.

Still today, it appears the public health approach to lingering environmental hazards remains unfocused and halting. The unquestionable need for long-term monitoring has been met with only short-term commitments. Screening and monitoring results have not been translated into timely protocols that could be used by a broader range of treating physicians. Valuable data sets compiled by competing programs may atrophy as money and vigilance wane.

Both the executive and legislative branches of our Federal Government are failing those who were on the front lines nearly 6 years ago. Many responders, workers, residents and schoolchildren are getting sick from the toxins that they were exposed to in the area around Ground Zero. We are not providing those affected with satisfactory treatments and care.

We need to know how many people are sick or how many become sick or how they may become sick and if they are receiving proper medical care. We

also need to talk to the doctors who are treating them to determine if they are aware of how best to care for these victims.

I just have two more points I want to make. We have spent billions of dollars improving our method to defend the United States against another terrorist attack, and we are certainly safer than we were in 2001. But we are still not completely safe. I believe we need to use oversight hearings to help prepare for a similar attack in another city, to determine how large an area the government should be monitoring for health effects, and what some of these of the best practices are to minimize the impact and treat future victims in these catastrophic situations.

It is our duty to care for the victims who continue to live with illnesses caused by the events of that fateful day, to monitor, track and treat their symptoms and to ensure they have knowledge of and access to services available to them. Congress and the administration also have a duty to make sure we as a Nation have learned from their experiences so we can effectively and expeditiously respond to a similar horrendous event in the future, and I think that's what both of you are trying to do and trying to highlight.

My constituents don't live in New York City. But I had a number who came and spent every day at Ground Zero, and I just know what they're dealing with. And we know so many others. There are thousands of others of individuals, and they need our attention.

I thank our colleague, and I hope we have a chance to have a little bit of a dialogue about this.

I would add to that but also make the point that this won't be the first city that will have to deal with this kind of issue. I mean, we want to be able to protect and prevent a terrorist attack, but there may be some other event. And what we also need is a protocol that makes sure that future first responders are never put in this condition and that residents around wherever an event takes place are notified and given good information. The bottom line is, no one was ever given good information from day one.

I would like to thank the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney) for arranging this opportunity to come to the floor to raise awareness of the ongoing effects of 9/11.

I am proud to say that so many from Pennsylvania answered the first call very, very quickly, among some of the first there after the New Yorkers, who helped deal with the aftermath of those horrible attacks.

As we all know, September 11, 2001, was one of the darkest days in American history. Nearly 3,000 innocent people were killed in separate incidents in

New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. These attacks were intended to instill fear in our hearts and minds and to shake our American spirit.

They did not have that desired effect. Instead, they unified a Nation and strengthened the resolve of the American people. I neglected to mention that one of my own relatives was in the North Tower and, thankfully, made it out. He was on the 91st floor, made it out. All of his colleagues did, too, but nobody above them did. So this issue has touched us all in many ways.

September 11, and the long days that followed, bore witness to inspiring acts of heroism and self-sacrifice. As rescue and recovery efforts unfolded, we saw Americans reaching out to one another, united in a determination to make the country whole again.

Whether it was neighbor helping neighbor or stranger helping stranger, Americans from across the country simply gave of themselves, and operating at the front lines of this effort were local first responders. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about one of those first responders, a selfless and heroic individual by the name of Ryan McCormick.

Ryan, a native of Bethlehem Township in my district, has led a life of service that we should all try to emulate. An Eagle Scout of the Minsi Trails Council, Ryan committed himself to public service at a very young age. Whether he was volunteering at the Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Company, performing search and rescue operations with the Civil Air Patrol, or defending our Nation as an 8-year veteran of the United States Army Reserve, Ryan has always been concerned about the well-being of others.

Taking the Boy Scout motto of ``Be Prepared'' to heart, Ryan was, indeed, prepared and acted without hesitation on that fateful Tuesday, Tuesday morning of September 11. Ryan was working as a paramedic in Newark, New Jersey, when his unit was dispatched to the terrorist attacks. Relying on his years of preparation and experience and firmly committed to helping others, Ryan worked tirelessly from September 11 to September 13. The work was hard, dirty and dangerous and heartbreaking. But Ryan persisted. For him, duty came first.

But Ryan McCormick paid a terrible price for his determination and resolve. In late 2002, Ryan started to become sick. In the spring of 2003, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He has undergone consistent treatment for over 4 years, including a stem cell transplant. He is still fighting valiantly against his cancer and soon hopes to be well enough for another stem cell transplant.

But Ryan is not alone. Many of the first responders who worked to ease the suffering of the innocent are now suffering life-threatening illnesses. Fortunately, Ryan, like the rest of his first responder colleagues, is a fighter. And I am proud to let you know that Ryan has joined us tonight and is seated in the Gallery.

Ryan continues to battle this cancer while continuing his service to others. Ryan is the director of emergency management for New Jersey's largest health care system, serves as the Essex County emergency management deputy EMS coordinator and is a lieutenant for the Verona, New Jersey, rescue squad.

In addition, Ryan has started a nonprofit corporation that raises money to buy iPods for cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment. This organization is named Project Turtle Pods, and more information about this endeavor can be found at www.projectturtlepods.com. Ryan, the House of Representatives welcomes you and thanks you for your courageous service on September 11th. You exemplify all that is great about the American spirit.

As ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response, I am very well aware of the sacrifices our country's first responders make to ensure the safety of others. In turn, we in Congress must take on the responsibility of protecting those who sacrifice to protect us. That is why I have agreed to cosponsor Representative Maloney's bill, House Resolution 128, which urges the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare a long-term, comprehensive plan to medically monitor all individuals who were exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero.

Of all the lessons we learned from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there is one first and foremost that stands out: We must not forget those individuals who continue to suffer in the aftermath of these events. The spirit found in Ryan McCormick is fundamentally American. It is this can-do attitude that assures us that we as a Nation can rise to meet any challenge that we encounter. Let us follow the example that Ryan has set for us and help those who are suffering from afflictions precipitated by their involvement in the 9/11 rescue, recovery and cleanup efforts. The people who gave so much to us at that site deserve nothing less.

Again, I want to thank the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney) for tonight's opportunity to speak on this important issue and her commitment to our Nation's first responders. I want to thank her for her friendship and her leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.