9/11 fund running out of money for those with illnesses

compensation fund for victims of 9/11 is running out of money and will cut future payments by 50 to 70%, officials anunced Friday.

September 11th Victim Compensation Fund special master Rupa Bhattacharyya said she was "painfully aware of inequity of situation" but stressed that awarding some funds for every valid claim would be preferable to sending some legitimate claimants away empty-handed. "I could t abide a plan that would at end of day leave some claimants uncompensated," Bhattacharyya said.

Nearly 40,000 people have applied to federal fund for people with illnesses potentially related to being at World Tre Center site, Pentagon or Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after 2001 terror attacks re, and about 19,000 of those claims are pending. Nearly $5 billion in benefits have been awarded out of $7.3 billion funds.

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Bhattacharyya said fund officials estimate it would take ar $5 billion to pay pending claims and claims that officials anticipate will be submitted before fund's December 2020 deline.

Absent that funding, officials determined that pending claims submitted by Feb. 1 would be paid at 50% of ir prior value. Valid claims received after that date will be paid at just 30%.

Members of Congress responded to Friday's anuncement by vowing to reauthorize compensation fund.

"This is devastating news to thousands of sick and injured 9/11 responders and survivors who were promised, and have been counting on, being fully compensated for losses y have suffered," Democratic Reps. Jerry Nler and Carolyn Maloney and Republican Peter King said in a statement.

y said y would introduce legislation to make compensation fund permanent and to compensate all legitimate claimants. "Our bill would restore any cuts to awards, ensure that future eligible recipients are fully compensated, and make VCF program permanent," lawmakers said.

Senate's top Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer, said fund is supposed to provide "peace of mind to those sickened after horrific attack."

"For too many, ailments and disease from exposure to that toxic airborne brew have taken years to show up and - as need for fund grows - chance it may t have equate resources to take care of our heroes is just unacceptable," Schumer said in a statement.

collapse of tre center in 2001 sent a cloud of thick dust billowing over Lower Manhattan. Fires burned for weeks. Thousands of construction workers, police officers, firefighters and ors spent time working in soot, often without proper respiratory protection.

In 17 years since, many have seen ir health decline, some with respiratory or digestive-system ailments that appeared almost immediately, ors with illnesses that developed as y d, including cancer.

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Scientists can't say definitively wher toxins at site gave people cancer. One study published last year found that overall mortality rates among nearly 30,000 rescue and recovery workers weren't elevated. But researchers have raised concern an unusual number of suicides among first responders and more deaths than expected from brain cancers and n-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bhattacharyya said volume of claims has increased over past year, with more than 8,000 claims filed in last four months.
Reasons for increase include long latency period for some cancers as well as an increase in applications by people who lived or worked near tre center but were t actively involved in recovery efforts, Bhattacharyya said.