Take Action: Contact Your Members of Congress
Find other Members of Congress
For complete lists of all Members of Congress and whether or not they currently support 9/11 responders & survivors, click the button for the chamber you wish to view below.
House of Representatives Senate
Call your representatives in Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act, HR. 1786/ S. 928. Tell them that “Remember 9/11” should be more than a bumper sticker!
Not sure who your representatives are? Type in your home address below and we will automatically match you with your representative and both of your senators. Or, you can click on the buttons below to browse complete lists of all members of Congress.
Why it matters that you contact your Members of Congress
There are over 33,000 9/11 responders and survivors that have at least one injury from 9/11, including thousands who have multiple, chronic and disabling illnesses from their exposures to the toxins at Ground Zero. So far, over 3,700 have been diagnosed with cancer from their 9/11 exposures. Sadly, thousands more cases are expected.
In 2010, after years of delays, Washington finally took action to provide medical treatment and monitoring as well as economic compensation to those injured at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville crash site.
The programs created by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act are now helping responders and survivors in every state and in 429 of 435 Congressional Districts. But, these programs are set to expire, leaving 9/11 heroes and heroines without the help that they need, unless you take action TODAY.
Call your representatives in Congress and tell them to co-sponsor the 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act. Tell them that “Remember 9/11” should be more than a bumper sticker.
Here’s how it works
Type in your address above and we will tell you who represents you in Congress; whether they are sponsoring the bill; how they voted on the Zadroga Act in 2010; and the number of 9/11 responders and survivors they represent who will lose their medical care if the law expires.
Most importantly, if they are not cosponsors of the legislation to reauthorize the law (HR. 1786/ S 928) we will tell you what they have said about 9/11 in the past, and you can match their words against their lack of action.
Then, we can connect you on the phone directly to their office in Washington.
If they already sponsor the bill, please thank them and tell them how much you appreciate their support for injured 9/11 responders and survivors.
If they have not signed on to cosponsor the bill yet, ask them to join, and tell them that the nation’s promise to “never forget 9/11” should be more than just words.
You can also tweet to urge them to co-sponsor the legislation or to thank them for supporting injured 9/11 responders and survivors.
Footnotes
(1) Footnote for U.S. House of Representatives Voting Record
In the House of Representatives there were three floor votes in 2010 taken by the full House. The Table above reflects the total of the three votes. If a member voted for the legislation either the second or the third time they are marked as voting “Yes”, if they voted no and opposed the legislation they are marked as “No”. If they were not in Congress that year they are marked as “Not in Congress”.
The first attempt at House Passage (Roll #491) on July 29, 2010, was an attempt to achieve passage using an expedited procedure called “Suspension of the Rules” that requires an affirmative two-thirds vote for passage and is used by the House to vote on non-controversial legislation. While the vote was 255-159 in favor, the bill failed to get the required two-thirds affirmative vote of those present and was not passed.
The second attempt at House passage was successful. Using regular House procedures, on September 29, 2010 the legislation was brought to the full House, was passed and sent to the Senate with an overwhelming majority vote of 268-160 (Roll #550).
The final vote in the House of Representatives was on December 22, 2010. This vote was on final passage of the legislation and agreeing to changes made by the U.S. Senate. It was, in fact, the last bill to pass the Congress that year. The House vote of 206-60 (Roll #664) sent the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature.
(2) Footnote for U.S. Senate Voting Record.
In the U.S. Senate there was only one roll call vote on the legislation and that was on December 9, 2010. The vote was on procedural motion to break a filibuster by Senators Coburn and Enzi against the bill and to invoke “cloture” to allow the bill to be brought up for debate. The vote was 57-42 (Roll #269), just short of the required 60 votes to break the filibuster and allow the legislation to be brought up for debate on the Senate floor.
After that vote, Senators Mark Kirk, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski publicly declared that if legislation were brought up again they would vote for cloture and support the bill. Because of the public statements by Senators Kirk , Collins, and Murkowski, Senators Coburn and Enzi negotiated a compromise that was subsequently approved by the Senate on December 22, 2010. This vote was conducted through a procedure called “Unanimous Consent” where there is no roll call vote but the legislation is passed when no Senator objects.
Senators are shown as having voted yes, no, or not in Congress during the first vote (Roll #269).
With that action, as mentioned above, the legislation was sent back to the U.S. House of Representatives were it was voted on, passed again, and sent to President Obama, who signed it into law on January 2, 2011.
(3) Footnote on statistics
Some of the statistics presented in the tool are in the form of a range. For example, “1 to 9”. This is because the data at low levels is purposefully “masked” by either the The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund or the World Trade Center Health Program to prevent the possible identification of specific participants.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered