James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise to briefly congratulate and thank the Members of the New York delegation and others who helped bring this legislation to the floor in a strong bipartisan way: Congresswoman Maloney, Congressman Nadler, Congressman King. Thank you. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to say ``thank you'' in a real way to our first responders, to our firefighters, to those who rushed in without question to rescue their fellow Americans, and people from all over the country as a matter of fact.
There is an exhilaration, Madam Speaker, that you see in the Chamber, because right now we know that any discussion we have ever had about 9/11 has been a discussion where we have entered holy and sacred ground, where people lost their lives. Fewer did because others were willing to risk theirs. For over 9 years we have been trying to redress the grievance that we have of people not having the health benefits and the recognition of their service, their sacrifice, and their courage.
Today Mr. King, Congresswoman Maloney, Congressman Nadler--I should say Congressman King, Chairman King to be--and the leadership of this House and of the United States Senate, and I thank Senator Gillibrand and Senator Schumer as well as Senator Reid and the Republican leadership in the Senate for affording us this opportunity to extend our patriotic appreciation to those whose love of our country, whose care and commitment to their fellow person, who unquestionably made sacrifices, and now, almost 9 1/2 years later, more than 9 years later we finally are doing the right thing for them.
Every day our firefighters, our police officers, our first responders leave their homes, willing to risk their lives. Little did they know on that day many of them would not return home. How can we ever repay their sacrifice and their courage?
So, today we do so, certainly not enough, but as a token of our appreciation for what they have done to strengthen our country.
Again, I thank all of those who made this important legislation possible.
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