Fairness for Families Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, the families of the 9/11 victims have our deepest sympathies. They have spent the last 20 years seeking justice through a maze of red tape.

Due to errors made with how funds to compensate victims were structured, a disparity emerged between the compensation received by differently situated 9/11 families. This legislation would help remedy that inequity.

Behind the scenes, we have been working to solve this problem for years. Unfortunately, the Democrats have not been particularly interested. During the last few years of trying to resolve this matter, the Judiciary Committee has not held a single hearing or markup to evaluate the problems with victims funds or how to best address the problem.

In fact, according to a GAO study required by Congress, the shortfall owed to 9/11 families amounts to $2.7 billion. The proposal before us takes from COVID relief money that Congress appropriated for small businesses to make 9/11 families whole.

There are potential solutions to this problem that we should have put forward earlier. Unfortunately, because Chairman Nadler has declined to allow the Judiciary Committee to consider these other possibilities, we are left with just the bill before us today.

I do think it is important to recognize that we are here today thanks to the hard work of the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). I know Congresswoman Malliotakis and Congressman Smith have been working tirelessly on this during this entire Congress. It would have been nice to have their bill before our committee for some debate. We never would have gotten to a place of finding a solution for these victims without their tireless efforts.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) for his leadership and for his kind words. I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee for sponsoring this extraordinarily important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing--I was in Washington here chairing a Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing--when a group of radical jihadists hijacked four airliners to perpetrate the worst act of terrorism in American history.

Today, 21 years later, we remember the horror and pain suffered by those who were murdered and the anguish felt by their families and friends both then and now.

On the morning of 9/11, I got a mere glimpse into the sense of horror suffered by the victims' families when I couldn't reach my own brother, Tom, an American Airlines 757 captain who often piloted Flight 11 from Logan to L.A., the flight that crashed into the north tower. After several hours, when I finally made contact, he was okay, but he was friends with the crew of Flight 11, all who were killed that day.

I ask my colleagues to strongly support H.R. 8987, the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act. This legislation addresses a significant shortcoming in programs made available to the widows and children of 9/11.

As I think Members know, in 2015, Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to provide compensation to Americans injured in acts of international state-sponsored terrorism. Despite the obvious connection to the 9/11 surviving family members, however, a misinterpretation of the law by the fund's special master unjustly barred spouses and children of 9/11 from participating in the fund.

In 2021, at the behest of Congress, the GAO conducted an investigation and found that 5,364 victims, spouses, and dependents were excluded from the fair restitution due to a technicality in the administration of the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.

H.R. 8987 provides immediate relief, with a lump-sum catch-up payment to the victims' immediate families.

For two decades, Mr. Speaker, I have worked with the Jersey Girls to achieve justice--that is what they call themselves--wonderful, wonderful widows who have tried to achieve justice for those who committed these horrific crimes and for those who suffered and were left behind.

Because of them, we got the 9/11 Commission. I was the chief Republican sponsor of that bill, but that wasn't because of what we did here as much as it was because of the work that they did in walking the halls and trying to get people to support a 9/11 fund.

I point out to my colleagues that Tom Kean, our former Governor, headed that up, along with Lee Hamilton, the distinguished former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. What they produced after their hearings became the blueprint to protect America.

As they noted in their opening statement--and I chaired two hearings about implementing the report--what they said was, We are safer but not safe, and they prescribed both administrative and legislative actions that should be undertaken to protect America.

I would note that Kathie Wisniewski, who works on my staff, and lost her husband, Alan, is with us today, Kristen Breitweiser; Mindy Kleinberg; Lorie Van Auken; Kathy Maher and her sons, Joseph and Daniel; and the next generation of 9/11 family advocates, including Angela Mistrulli and Brett Eagleson, who lost his parents on 9/11, were the driving force in achieving this win today, which, again, is a modicum of justice for their egregious loss.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Malliotakis, our colleague from Staten Island, for her work on this and her bill, as well as the chairman's bill, which has a pay-for. I think this is an important, important piece of legislation. I hope every Member of the body will support it.

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Mr. JORDAN. Malliotakis), who has worked so hard on this issue this entire Congress.
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