https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-administration-siphoned-almost-4-million-from-911-first-responders-fund-report-2020-09-11?mod=mw_latestnews&fbclid=IwAR0J-0TtvMWgjvKcgm6d01ZZ08hA9bzUkQbUZs7rP4sfsYgy3RMBbrSgkio
Published: Sept. 11, 2020 at 2:18 p.m. ET
As the nation marks the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new report accuses the Trump administration of siphoning almost $4 million away from a fund supporting the 9/11 first responders.
The Treasury Department began withholding parts of payments intended to cover medical services for firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians suffering 9/11-related illnesses, according to documents obtained by the New York Daily News. These first responders who inhaled smoke and dust at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, which killed almost 3,000 Americans, have suffered illnesses including cancers and systemic autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, in the almost two decades since.
The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOHS) oversees the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program. The Daily News reports that the Treasury started keeping some of the money earmarked for this program — to the tune of about half a million dollars each year in 2016 and 2017, and $630,000 each year in 2018 and 2019. And the Treasury has nearly tripled these extractions this year, withholding $1.447 million through late August, according to Dr. David Prezant, the program director.
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Adding insult to injury was that they weren’t given a heads-up about any cuts, he said. “And for years, they wouldn’t even tell us — we never ever received a letter telling us this,” he said.
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