Fairness for Families Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1404, I call up the bill (H.R. 8987) to amend the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to authorize appropriations for catch-up payments from the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. NADLER. 8987.

Mr. Speaker, the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act would provide a catch-up payment to thousands of 9/11 victims, spouses, and dependents who were unfairly excluded from the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund when it was first established in 2015.

While no amount of money can ever make up for the incalculable loss that they suffered on September 11, this legislation would ensure that they are fairly compensated for their claims against those responsible for one of our Nation's darkest days.

In 2015, Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to provide compensation for individuals with terrorism judgments against designated state sponsors of terrorism.

At the time, those who had received payments from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund--primarily victims, spouses, and children-- were precluded from receiving funds from the VSSTF.

Their exclusion from the fund led to a perverse result by which other family members who were not eligible for payments under the VCF could receive compensation from the VSSTF--in some cases, substantially more than what was paid out under the VCF--while victims, spouses, and children were excluded from the fund, despite also having claims.

Congress corrected this injustice in 2019, and a year later it tasked the Government Accountability Office with calculating a lump-sum catch- up payment that would bring those who initially had been wrongly excluded from the VSSTF into parity with those individuals who had been included in the fund when it was first created.

The Fairness for 9/11 Families Act fully funds these catch-up payments, offset by funds no longer needed to implement the Paycheck Protection Program. I thank Senators Menendez and Schumer for their partnership on this legislation and for all of their efforts to provide justice and support to 9/11 families over the years.

I also thank the many victims and family members whose advocacy and determination were essential to bringing this legislation forward. Although nothing can make up for 20 years of missed birthdays, anniversaries, and memories for those who lost loved ones on September 11, I hope that these funds can provide some measure of comfort and justice to the people whose lives were changed forever that day.

As we pass this legislation, we must not forget the survivors and first responders who continue to suffer the health effects of the 9/11 attacks. As I always have, I will continue to fight to ensure that these people have the care they need. We can, and we must, look after everyone who was affected that fateful day.

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Mr. NADLER. Jackson Lee).

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) for work that is long overdue, and the Senators in the other body, as well.

I lived through 9/11, as many of us who have served in this Congress did. I lived through the terror, the horror, the horrific scenes that were unspeakable and unbelievable. I lived through them with the same sense of this could not be America.

I was in this building as the planes hit the Pentagon. We did not get the direct information about the World Trade Center, but as we were screamed at to get out and flee, as we ran without knowledge, I could see the billowing smoke, as the plane had already hit the Pentagon.

Never in our lives since World War II and Pearl Harbor had I seen or heard about, if you will, such atrocities and violence. Imagine those families, never being able to bury their loved ones.

I went to Ground Zero by train because at that time planes were not in the air. I was insistent, as a member of the beginning of the Homeland Security Committee, to go there with a former Senator. We went to the very site.

No, there was no rescuing at that time; it was recovering.

We saw those fire department personnel, firemen, and law enforcement guarding this sacred place. Those firepersons would get a whistle blown when someone who had been digging found the remnants of a body, pieces of bones, and because they wanted to honor those families, they would blow the whistle and a gurney would come, and they would put what they found on the gurney.

That is what this bill is all about. It is to be able to say that families have suffered unconscionably, and that due to their own government withholding payments due to them and only incrementally dribbling them out in small amounts over the years, the families have faced financial hardship.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this would provide financial relief for the families of those murdered by the terrorists by helping to put more dollars in this victims' fund, more so than the Victim Compensation Fund, to provide them with catch-up payments that they did not get. That is important to do.

Mr. Speaker, might I say that I visited with the Uvalde families this past Monday. Their pain is deep, and it is the same. They don't have a handle on these compensation funds. They are suffering. And as this has evidenced, that you must always ease the suffering of those who you cannot replace their loved ones, I look forward to working with the chairman on helping these Uvalde families in their suffering.

I support this legislation. I thank the chairman, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 8987.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support H.R. 8987, the ``Fairness for 9/11 Families Act''.

I commend my colleague and friend, Chairman Jerry Nadler, for introducing this bill and bringing it before the House today.

This legislation provides us the opportunity to ``do right'' for the families who suffered directly from the heinous acts and carnage perpetrated on our nation on September 11th, 2001.

H.R. 8987 would provide financial relief to the families of those murdered by terrorists on September 11th by providing lump sum catch-up payments to them of the funds to which they are entitled from the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.

When the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund was created, it did not allow for payments to families who already received some payments from the Victims Compensation Fund, even though they were clearly within the scope of the new fund.

This error was corrected later, but the families still have not received the catch-up payments to which they were entitled to provide them the financial assistance that they would have received if the initial error had not been made.

This legislation would provide them with lump-sum payments to immediately correct that injustice.

Needless to say, these families have suffered enough, and it unconscionable that they should be subjected to further suffering due to their own government withholding payments due to them, and only incrementally dribbling them out in small amounts over many years.

The families have faced financial hardship since that day, partly due to the loss of their loved one's income, and just as directly, by the inability to focus on employment while coping with their loss of a loved one through that unspeakable national tragedy.

The events of September 11th were among the most horrifying, frightening, and shocking that I have ever endured. That day, I was at the Capitol and experienced the frantic panic of being rushed off of the Capitol grounds when we feared that Flight 93 was aiming toward us.

And yet, my experience that day was incidental and transitory compared to the life-altering devastation that was felt that day and every day since then by the families of those who were killed in the airplanes and in the buildings that were struck.

Any time a loved one is abruptly and unforeseeably killed by violence or an accident, their surviving family members are devastated and debilitated, with a lengthy adjustment period that sometimes is never resolved.

In the case of the 9/11 victims and families, the aftermath of grief, mourning, and incapacity was protracted and compounded.

This was initially due to the uniquely heinous and horrible circumstances of 9/11, and thereafter due to the annual national memorials and the ubiquitous reminders of the tragedy that is embedded in the national consciousness.

These families are forever intertwined with the grief, sadness, and despondency associated with those acts of warfare against the United States. Thus, it is our responsibility, as the Congress of their United States, to prioritize their needs, revitalization, and compensation since, in effect, their loved ones were lost in an act of war by enemy combatants.

Although we can never sufficiently compensate the families for the loss of their loved ones, we must do all we can to support them and help them reclaim their productive lives.

It is not too much to ask--indeed, it is the least we can do--to ensure that the funds allocated to them be transmitted to them immediately to ease their financial burdens and support their pursuit of fulfilling lives.

The catch-up payments that were allocated to the families must be distributed to them promptly in lump sum payments for the dual sakes of fairness and solidarity with those whose sacrifice is enshrined in our national fabric.

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Mr. NADLER. DeLauro).

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Mr. NADLER. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, when our Nation was attacked on September 11, we made a commitment on that terrible day to support the victims and their families. The Fairness for 9/11 Families honors that commitment.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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