WASHINGTON – Comedian Jon Stewart joined 9/11 first responders at the Capitol Monday to speak against proposed changes to the World Trade Center Health Program tucked inside President Trump’s 2019 budget.
“He’s a guy that has supported the first responders and veterans. He talks about how much he loves them,” Stewart said of Trump. “It’s a very simple thing. I’m sure he could put a stop to it this afternoon if he wanted to. And so I would urge him to do so.”
The president’s 2019 budget calls for the separation of the special health program from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The World Trade Center health care program that provides care for patients suffering from 9/11 health conditions would instead be overseen by Centers for Disease Control, while NIOSH would move to the National Institutes of Health.
Sick 9/11 first responders who receive healthcare at no cost under the program were aghast at the changes.
“The only thing that keeps me alive are these treatments,” said Salvatore Turturici, a retired emergency medical technician from the FDNY, who suffers from 9/11 related stage-4 liver cancer
But Budget Director Mick Mulvaney downplayed the proposal as merely a suggestion to Congress and said the new organization would not affect healthcare services to the 9/11 responders.
“Nobody here would have proposed anything that would have upset services or that is intended to upset services,” said Joe Grogan, associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget. “The opposite is the case. We want to make sure these services are fully funded and that’s why we requested full funding. This has to do with aligning NIH’s and NIOSH’s missions.”
New York members of Congress, led by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Peter King and Jerrold Nadler, said the proposal violates the law they helped pass in 2015 to extend the Zadroga Act for 75 years to ensure sick 9/11 first responders have access to free medical care.
They say they weren’t consulted about the proposed changes and have gotten no guidance on why a program they deem successful would be changed.
“This is Mulvaney,” said King (R-L.I.). “Mulvaney, when he was in the House in 2015, when the program was already in effect for five years and working flawlessly, he voted against reauthorizing it. He never supported the program. … He’s voted against New York.”
First responders said the Trump proposal is causing undue stress and anxiety.
“When I knew I had healthcare locked in for 75 years, it made me extremely happy and it took a huge burden off of my family,” Terence Opiola, 50, a retired Homeland Security Special Agent who suffers from 9/11-related leukemia and respiratory ailments. told The Post. “Now there’s an unknown.”
Stewart, who has been a longtime advocate for the Zadroga Act, challenged Mulvaney to meet with the sick first responders and explain why he’s “screwing them.”
Then Stewart quipped that Mulvaney must be busy: “He’s scheduled, I believe, at 1 pm for a session of punching babies.”
But Grogan, from Mulvaney’s office, said any accusation the budget plan is aimed to undercut the World Trade Center health program is just wrong.
“I’m from New York,” Grogan said. “I had friends who got killed on Sept. 11 and knew people down there. My sister had to be evacuated. If this was in any way shape or form generated out of malice or political expediency, or if there was any type of indifference to the first responders, I would not have in any way promoted it and wouldn’t be defending this decision.”
Article source: https://nypost.com/2018/03/05/jon-stewart-joins-9-11-first-responders-to-save-health-program/