New York Senators Say Christmas Miracle Coming For 9/11 First Responders

Some Republicans to support 9/11 Health Bill?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) seems confident she has found a way to get the Zadroga bill passed after it died last week. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is already on board, and Snowe & Collins of Maine, as well as Murkowski of Alaska are believed to be votes as well. There is a fair amount of Fox News "fair and balanced" in this ABC report but at least the Mainstream Media is bothering to mention the root causes of this failure, perhaps shamed into it by Jon Stewart. Senate Republicans last week de...

Senate Democrats likely to pass new 9/11 health bill
Stumble This! Legislation to improve Health Care services to Rescue Workers who became ill as a result of breathing dangerous fumes and dust at the World Trade Center may receive a second chance after being blocked by Senate Republicans last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to bring up a scaled-down version of the 9/11 First Responders health bill for another vote during the lame-duck session. The bill is expected after the Senate votes on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty...

Senate Republicans are Now Aiding and Abetting 9/11 Terrorists in the Deaths of Americans
Submitted by mark karlin on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 11:22am. If the 9/11 Terrorists wanted to cause the deaths of many Americans, Republicans in the Senate are aiding and abetting them. That may sound like a monstrous, sensationalistic accusation, but there is really no other way to characterize a GOP Filibuster last week to prevent funding that would assist the medical needs of 9/11 First Responders in serious ill health due to exposures to Toxins at the site. ABC News headlined the act of betrayal,...

"Christmas Miracle" Close For 9/11 Health Bill
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer held a Press Conference Sunday afternoon to discuss updates, changes, and hope for the 9/11 Health Bill, which was blocked last week in the Senate. "We are on the verge of a Christmas miracle," said Gillibrand, who pointed to increased cooperation from Republican Senators for the bill, which would provide aid of up to $7.4 billion to First Responders and others who lived near Ground Zero and became sick after the attack on September 11th, 2...

9/11 health bill 'Christmas miracle'?
Published: Dec. 20, 2010 at 4:15 AM WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- A less-costly Healthcare Bill for ill Ground Zero workers should get enough Republican support to pass the lame-duck U.S. Congress, the bill's backers said. "We are on the verge of a Christmas miracle,'' said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Gillibrand and fellow New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said the new version of the bill -- with a $6.2 billion Price Tag over 10 years, instead of $7.4 billion, and using an Excise Tax t...

NY Lawmakers Hope To Pass 9/11 Bill During Lame Duck
NEW YORK (CBS 2) — The Senate is expected to begin debating the 9/11 health bill once more this week, the last week of the session, but as Kathryn Brown reports, New York lawmakers said this time they think they’ll succeed. “We believe we’ve secured enough Republican votes to prevail,” Senator Chuck Schumer said. “America will be watching very closely on how the senate votes on something that goes fundamentally to the issue of who we are as Americans and wheth...

Gillibrand: 9/11 Health Bill has Votes to Pass
New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said on CBS' "The Early Show" Monday morning that a bill to provide Health Care for First Responders to the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks has the votes to pass thanks in part to a decision to reduce the cost of the bill from $7.4 billion to $6.2 billion. She said "we have the support we need" to win passage immediately following a planned Senate vote on the New START Treaty. "We've been working very hard for many months and over the last several weeks o...

'Christmas Miracle' for 9/11 Responders?
The First Responders still suffering health effects more than nine years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks could get a "Christmas miracle" this year, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said today. More Video ...

Gillibrand Joined By Maloney, 9/11 First Responders, Workers, Families Of Fallen Heroes, Lower Manhattan Residents Announce First-Ever Senate Hearing On James Zadroga 9/11 Health And Compensation Act This Month
New York, NY – On the heels of a key House panel’s passage last month of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) stood at Ground Zero today with Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), 9/11 First Responders, workers, families who lost loved ones on 9/11 and Lower Manhattan residents to announce that on Tuesday, June 29th, the U.S. Senate will hold its first-ever hearing on the James Zadroga 9/...

'Christmas Miracle' for 9/11 Responders?
The First Responders still suffering health effects more than nine years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks could get a "Christmas miracle" this year, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said today. More Video ...

Schumer, Gillibrand Predict 9/11 Responders Bill Will Pass (VIDEO)
New York's two Democratic Senators are predicting that the bill to aid 9/11 First Responders will be able to pass the Senate -- after having previously been blocked by Senate Republicans -- in the wake of recent changes such as lowering the Price Tag from $7.4 billion to $6.2 billion. Appearing this morning on Good Morning America, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told George Stephanopoulos: "We now have the votes, we've made some modifications that some of our Republican colleagues requested and if...

9/11 First Responders Bill May Move Ahead This Week
What is this? Firefighters make their way through the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Firefighters make their way through the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. While the new START Treaty, the Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the tax package put together by President Obama and Congressional Republicans have been getting most of the attention, another piece of important Legislation has been on the Senate's agenda. And there's word ...

Dont Make 9/11 First Responders Dead Ducks
If the Senate passes the 9/11 First Responders bill in this Lame Duck session of Congress, it proves several things. One, Republicans can be shamed into doing the right thing, and two, Jon Stewart deserves Emmy, Peabody and Pulitzer awards. First, read this account of a successful Republican attempt to block the necessary Legislation last week. Now read and view Stewart’s epic Thursday night. If the Republicans are going to draw the line at funding 9/11 First Responders Victims as too exp...

9/11 First Responders Bill Needs Just 1 Vote More: Gillibrand Confident Legislation Will Pass Senate
ABC News: The First Responders still suffering health effects more than nine years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks could get a "Christmas miracle" this year, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said today. Read the whole story: ABC News Get HuffPost Politics On Twitter and Facebook! Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter! Know something we don't? E-mail us at [email protected] ...

NY senators seek "Christmas miracle" for Ground Zero heroes bill
Politico: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the House should stay in session until the Senate passes a new version of a bill aimed at giving health benefits to Ground Zero workers. Setting up a clash in the final days of the congressional session, Schumer - along with fellow New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand - offered a modified version of a bill Sunday giving compensation to Rescue Workers who fell ill from the toxic dust stemming from the collapse of the twin towers ...

Conservatives growing uncomfortable with GOP blockade of 9/11 health bill
With Senate Democrats upping the pressure for passage of the bill giving health benefits to sickened 9/11 responders, it's going to get increasingly hard for GOP Senators to maintain their opposition. That's because even right-leaning commentators and political operatives are growing mighty uncomfortable with the Senate GOP's stance. Case in point: This morning Joe Scarborough ripped into GOP opponents of passing the bill, which is called the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. He said R...

New 9/11 Health Bill Could Be Passed By New Year
New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand think they've got a 9/11 First Responders Health bill that can pass through the Senate, but they have to Cut funding and make it Deficit neutral to attract Republicans. As it stands, the bill would be paid for by a two percent Tax on certain imports and would in turn provide $6.2 billion in funding for a specially administered payment program. The two expect the bill to come up for discussion after the ratification of the new START Nuclear arms limit

9/11 Bill Inches Closer, Shaves Off a Billion
New York's Senators have been working to get the 9/11 Health Bill out the door (AP). To the joy of Jon Stewart (presumably) and many a New Yorker it appears that the Senate really is going to vote on the 9/11 Health Bill, AKA the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, either tomorrow or Wednesday. The vote comes after its supporters, NY Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, managed to cut the co...

New York's Dem senators see breakthrough on 9/11 healthcare bill
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced Sunday that they have struck a deal with Senate Republicans to pass a 9/11 Healthcare Bill, one of the last items remaining on the lame-duck schedule. Republican leaders have signed off on the substance of the Legislation but uncertainty remains over whether there will be enough time to pass it before Christmas. Schumer is worried that some opponents may try to set procedural holders to delay floor action beyond the end of ...

Pols see hope for 9/11 bill
WASHINGTON -- The long-stalled 9/11 health bill is headed for a Senate vote as soon as tomorrow after supporters shaved $1.2 billion from its Price Tag to satisfy skeptical Republicans, New York lawmakers said yesterday. "I believe we now have more than enough votes to pass this Legislation," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a chief champion of the measure, said at a Capitol Press Conference. Republicans, who blocked the bill with a Filibuster earlier this month, had criticized the cost and f...

Russia Warns Senate Not to Amend Arms Control Treaty
WASHINGTON — Russia warned the United States Senate on Monday not to rewrite the new Arms Control treaty being debated on Capitol Hill as American lawmakers clashed about the politics of ratification in the waning days of the Congressional session. Republican critics of the treaty, known as New Start, offered more amendments to the treaty’s language on verification and launcher limits. But any change to the treaty text would require both countries to return to the negotiating table,...

Senators say WTC health bill compromise reached; Bloomberg makes final push
Senate leaders Sunday said that they believe they have reached a Compromise to pass the James Zadroga September 11 Health and Compensation Act. A vote in the United States Senate was blocked last week after Republicans expressed concerns on the funding source for the bill that would provide health benefits to individuals who suffered long term Health Problems after working to save lives in the wake of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks, which had already passed the United States House of Represe...

Kerry Rips McConnell On START: Just Because You Say It Doesnt Make It True
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) confronted Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) immediately after he spoke on ratification of the New START Treaty this morning. McConnell’s complaints about the process being rushed were too much for Kerry, who had overseen the treaty’s ratification and has frequently bent over backwards to appease Republican concerns. Kerry ripped McConnell: I would say to my friend from Kentucky: Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true. Our friends on the oth...

Senate Republicans Threaten START After Dems Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell
The Senate will ratify new START this week, say the White House and top Senate Democrats. But Republican leaders -- and many of their influential members -- are doing all they can to create the opposite impression. Somebody's clearly wrong. But we may not know whom until the last moment, when the arms reduction treaty gets a final vote on the Senate floor, and either does -- or does not -- win the two-thirds majority required for ratification. That, in turn, will depend on whether Republicans...

Obama pushes for arms pact as top Dem upbeat
(12-20) 10:50 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Barack Obama lobbied senators by phone Monday to back an arms treaty with Russia that he's called a National Security imperative, as a top Senate Democrat conceded "house by house combat" would be needed to win enough GOP votes to prevail. The president is continuing to call senators as he presses for passage of the New START Treaty before Congress adjourns, according to deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton. The White House and Senate Democratic le...