Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise to speak on a bill that the Chair has spearheaded the charge for--and done it with such hard work and determination and commitment and vigor--and that is the bill to provide health care for our 9/11 heroes, those men and women who at a time of war rushed to danger to save lives and protect our freedom.

We have met with these brave men and women repeatedly. Some of them are suffering already with cancers they acquired for their acts of bravery. Others know it is an almost certainty that they will come down with similar diseases and illnesses that are extremely costly to fight.

Madam President, we have had a grand tradition in America: Those who risk their lives to protect us and volunteer to do it under no compunction, we remember them when they get hurt in that brave endeavors. We do it for our veterans and we should be doing it for our 9/11 heroes--the first responders, the police, the firefighters, the EMT workers, the construction workers, and the ordinary citizens who rushed into danger at a time when no one knew how many people might be living and entrapped in those collapsed towers.

I plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, this should not be a moment of politics. One can come up with reason after reason why not to vote for this bill, and we have heard many and the reasons keep changing. But one fact doesn't change: There are those who need help and who deserve our help--from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and from every other State of the Union. To them, a parliamentary decision that we can't vote on this because there is another bill we want to vote on first, because we would change this or that, is going to ring very hollow.

This should not be a partisan issue. This should be an issue where America unites. When it comes to helping our veterans, we are united. That is not a Democratic or Republican issue. That is not a northeast or southwest issue. It is an issue of being an American. This vote is about being an American because from the days at Bunker Hill, when the patriots put down their plows and took up muskets to defend and create our freedom, we have always tried to take care of them, and we have done it better and better for our veterans. The heroes of 9/11 are no different.

So I beg, I plead, I implore two brave colleagues from the other side to join us. Put aside the political considerations. Remember what these people did for us. You have seen them when they have visited your offices, the suffering, all for an act of voluntary heroism. They are not asking for welfare. They are not asking for a huge handout. They are simply asking that they be able to meet the high health care costs that occur when you develop cancers and other illnesses because particles of glass and cement and other materials get lodged in your lungs or your gastrointestinal tract.

So this is our last call. It is a plea. We will keep at this, but today is the day to step to the plate. I urge my colleagues to please support those brave men and women who were there for us--for America. Do not come up with an excuse as to why you cannot do it. We have marched and marched and marched, and this is the finish line. Help us get over it, please.

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