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By Ben Adler
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Emotions run high wherever the attacks of September 11 are concerned. Even as debate over the propriety of locating an Islamic community center two blocks from the former World Trade Center provokes a response from most national political leaders, there is another 9/11 political storm brewing. And, unlike the one over the "Ground Zero mosque," this one actually pertains to something the federal government controls.
In every Congress since 9/11, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has introduced legislation to help support the medical needs of first responders to the attacks of 9/11, who often suffer health problems due to the conditions they were exposed to at Ground Zero. This year it came up for a full vote on the House floor. Under special rules that inoculate a bill from "poison pill" amendments (which the GOP was suspected of planning), it requires a two-thirds supermajority for passage. It fell short, despite getting 255 ayes to 159 nays. Only 12 Republicans voted yes, while 155 voted no. So from the perspective of an advocate of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the main culprit here would be House Republicans.
But it is a Democrat, specifically President Obama, whom the bill's intended beneficiaries are currently criticizing. Obama has not spoken about the bill. "Why have you failed us?" wrote John Feal, who lost a foot working on the cleanup at Ground Zero, to Obama. "We thought you would be our champion." Feal, who runs a foundation for 9/11 responders, added that if Obama could be moved to speak out on the Islamic center, he ought to speak up on this issue as well. "It is disturbing that you have the time and energy to speak in favor of the mosque, but not on the health crisis caused by the attacks," Feal wrote. (His group takes no stance on the mosque itself.)
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Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who has been outdone in his vociferous advocacy of the Zadroga bill only by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), jumped on Feal's bandwagon. "It is offensive to have a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, but it's also offensive to let firefighters die with pulverized glass in their lungs," King told the New York Daily News. "It should be looked upon as a related issue."
Feal has a point: the legal construction of a community center under local zoning rules is not really any of the federal government's business, whereas the appropriation of federal dollars to care for 9/11 responders is.
Alas, King has not managed to sway many of his Republican colleagues, whose opposition is clearly a greater obstacle than Obama's admittedly baffling silence. King recently partnered with New York state Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman to call on Republicans to promise not to attach any controversial riders to the bill so it can be brought up under normal rules for a simple majority vote. But unless he makes any progress on that front, the bill will be stifled, regardless of Obama's statements, or lack thereof.
Neither the White House nor Representative King was available to comment in time for this item.
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