Senate Majority Leader McConnell says he doesn't know why Jon Stewart got 'all bent out of shape' over funding for 9/11 first responders, and insisted 'we will take care of' them.
during his appearance before a House subcommittee last week, where he lobbied for a bill that would ensure the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund would be funded for 70 years. Congress has paid for the fund, which will run out of money in 2020, with a series of short-term spending bills, forcing first responders who were sickened by working in the toxic rubble of the World Trade Center to repeatedly travel to Washington to plead for help.
Testifying with Stewart last Tuesday was former NYPD detective Luis Alvarez, who was headed for a 69th round of chemotherapy the next day."I can't help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to — behind me a filled room of 9/11 first responders and in front of me a nearly empty Congress," he said."Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak, to no one.
In addition, the subcommittee hearing had been held in the full committee's hearing room, increasing the number of empty chairs on the dais.
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