Testimony to Joint Hearing on Paying with Their Lives: The Status of Compensation for 9/11 Health Effects

This is my statement to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives, April 1, 2008, regarding proposals to expand the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (VCF) was a uniquely successful short-term administrative program to compensate victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks while limiting litigation against innocent third parties who had also been victimized by the attacks. Unfortunately, The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2007 (H.R. 3543) in its current form fails to protect innocent third parties from unfair litigation, does not have the advantages that made the VCF successful, and magnifies the disadvantages and fairness problems of the VCF.