Hearing Of The House Judiciary Committee - Full Committee Markup
Statement
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Ms. Lofgren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I am glad that we are able to proceed here today. We all know, in the days following the attacks of 9/11, Congress pulled together in a bipartisan way to face the terrorists, to adopt the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. And that fund was by any account a terrific success; it compensated those who lost their lives or received injuries, it avoided litigation, and it really fulfilled the Nation's pledge to stand with the New Yorkers who had been the subject of the attack. Despite this incredible success, when we held a hearing with Mr. Nadler's subcommittee pursuant to the claims jurisdiction of the Immigration Subcommittee, we found that there was a second job that had not been done by the Victim Compensation Fund, and that was compensating those who had stepped forward as volunteers to clean the debris, to search for victims, who are now suffering tremendous health problems. And that includes the individuals, the heroes and heroines, that are here with us today.
It also includes companies that stepped forward; and we need to resolve that situation, because the status quo is completely unacceptable. Over 11,000 lawsuits have been filed because there is no other opportunity to receive help. The companies are ready to go bankrupt. The individuals are suffering and not able to get the care they need. And so this bill, this bipartisan bill before us, is the result. I would like to give credit certainly to Carolyn Maloney, who has worked so hard on this, and certainly Jerry Nadler who has worked tremendously hard. But I also want to mention the staff. David Shahoulian, a lawyer on the subcommittee, has worked tirelessly on this to bring consensus. And prior to him, Blake Chisam worked on this matter. And what we have done here with this manager's amendment is to once again come together, as we did after 9/11, to solve the problem. And as Mr. Lungren has said, the points and concerns raised about unbridled costs are addressed in the manager's amendment by capping costs. In sort of a wonderful way, the attorneys who are representing the victims, the volunteers, have agreed to a cap on their compensation. And I have letters here not only from the companies that stepped forward, but also the labor unions that are representing the individuals; and we also know from the attorneys who have been involved, everybody is willing to give a little to make sure that the people who were hurt are treated the right way. And so I think this is really a very proud moment not only for this committee, but for our country that will never forget that day and will never forget those who stepped forward to do the right thing.
So, Mr. Conyers, I thank you for moving this forward, for Mr. Peter King, who is here, who has been a tremendous player in making this go forward. I think it is a proud moment for our committee and our country. And I strongly support the manager's amendment. And I yield back.
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Ms. Lofgren. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to make a couple of points on this amendment. First, as I mentioned when Mr. Nadler yielded to me, the rules of the committee governing private claims, which is basically what this is, say that attorneys' fees are capped at 10 percent and that there is an exception where extraordinary services have been rendered.
I would like to note that those committee rules were unanimously adopted by every member of the subcommittee, including Mr. King and Mr. Smith. We all adopted the rules that are now being applied to this claims bill. So I think that should carry some weight, number one. Number two, when we adopted the Victims Compensation Fund without any caps at all in the days following the attack, we did not know that there would be thousands of individuals whose health was so severely impaired when they volunteered at the site. And as a consequence of that, we did not provide for that. And as a consequence of that, we have had some 11,000 lawsuits have been filed, because that was the only way to deal with this. We didn't intend to do a wrong thing, but that is how this unfolded. And so now we have got a situation where the fund that we set up for the City of New York to pay damages has, instead, spent $200 million defending damage claims. I mean, $200 million defending damage claims, and for example, one of the law firms that is representing victims in New York has commenced over 230 New York State court proceedings.
They have taken over 100 depositions of State and city and Federal personnel. They have defended 120 plaintiffs in over 50 hours of hearings. They have provided interrogatories, detailed ones, for 340 cases. They have obtained and disclosed in excess of 2,200 sets of medical records. They have received 6.5 million documents in discovery. And so that is a lot of work. That is a lot of work that has been incurred. They are proceeding for the victims, and New York spent $200 million defending. And that is why our rules, that we are now trying to apply to this case, allow for exceptions in extraordinary circumstances. I don't know whether this law firm will fit the extraordinary circumstances, but that is why our rules exist as they do. I think it is important, especially in a case such as this, which tugs at us, as patriots and as human beings, to see these heroes here and what they have gone through to try and have the regular order imposed here, and that is what we are doing in this case. I would implore my colleagues on the other side to not try to change the rules in the middle of this situation. I think that does great damage to what I hoped and believed would be a bipartisan effort, certainly Mr. King, who is sitting in the front row has participated and Mr. Lungren, and I would hope others. So I would just plead for the regular order here. And I would yield to my colleague, Ms. Jackson Lee, for comments that she may have.
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