Appropriations Measure Aims to Fund World Trade Center Health Program Through 2090
A bipartisan coalition of federal legislators is pushing for a funding boost to help the World Trade Center Health Program remain solvent. A measure now before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2024 will (if enacted) allocate permanent and mandatory funding for the Health Program, while also updating an anachronistic appropriations mechanism to preclude future shortfalls.
When the Health Program was launched in 2010, no policymaker could foresee the number of people who would eventually be made sick by toxic debris from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. (The Health Program currently covers 132,000 Americans in all 50 states.) Its initial budget was drained in just a few years, and the bill required reauthorization in 2015. The additional funds allocated at that time were nearly depleted by 2023, which led Congress to provide a cash infusion of $676 million at the end of last year. That funding boost appears likely to be sufficient for another four years. But absent further allocations, the Health Program will need to begin turning away new applicants and curtailing services by 2028.
The funding formulas contained in the statutes that created and renewed the Health Program have failed to keep pace with the anticipated costs of providing the program’s services, in part because of the evolving nature of the health problems it is being called upon to treat. As the Centers for Disease Control (which oversees the Health Program) explains in a statement, “the Program has seen an increase in the number of cancer cases. The complexity of treating cancer, especially with other co-morbidities, and an aging membership in general, has increased the Program’s healthcare costs beyond what was previously estimated.”
The new bill aims to make sure the Health Program has all the money necessary for the next ten years, and then revises its funding formula to prevent future shortfalls through the planned sunset of benefits in 2090. The bill also increases appropriations for research and data collection related to conditions associated with September 11, with a particular focus on mental health and dementia.
Congressman Dan Goldman, a co-sponsor of the bill, said, “it’s our responsibility to pass the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act in order to ensure that those suffering from medical problems arising from the attack receive the health care they need and deserve.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, said, “yet again, we are introducing a bill to fix a projected funding shortfall in the World Trade Center Health Program. It’s time to fix this issue once and for all.”