dojN001552.xml

dojN001552.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-01-12

Saturday, January 12, 2002 10:46 AM
Issues regarding Public Law 107-42

To the Special Master,

Several issues published in the newspapers give a false representation of the law and the monies that uniformed personnel survivor families would recover if they were to participate in the program:
1) The law was originally devised to compensate survivors because Congress took away their basic right to sue the Airlines, the city of New York, the State of New York, the Port Authority, the security agencies hired by the airlines, Logan Airport and probably some others that do not come to mind at this time.
2) The Congress enacted this law on September 22nd, 11 days after the attack on the World Trade Center and gave the Airline industry $ 15 Billion to bail them out, and it may be that this was necessary, but it is interesting that their first thought was towards bolstering a big industry, not the support of the families devastated by the greatest tragedy to ever befall America.
3) When Congress enacted Public Law 107-42 they believed that the number of victims numbered over 6000. Recently the number has been established at 2893 or about 48% of the original count. The decrease in numbers should factor into the process of amending the rules and regulations.
4) Firefighters in New York are paid a very low wage and receive benefits like pensions and life insurances, as their job is so dangerous, to care for their families in the event of their demise fighting fires. The offset of pensions and life insurances could mean that these families would receive very little or maybe no compensation at all if the rules and regulations presently in place are not amended to discount these offsets.
5) The greatest discouragement to the survivor families is the cap of $ 250,000 on pain and suffering. We know that any amount of monetary recompense will decrease our anguish, but to think that our Government thinks that the worth of these heroes lives mean so little is heartbreaking.
6) The rules and regulations remove from the survivors a basic freedom under the law, they penalize our uniformed service heroes with offsets. and finally they finally, the greatest slap in the face of all, they tell us that our lost loved have a paltry monetary value.
I don't think any one but the survivors families can really comprehend the magnitude of what occurred on 9-11-01 and the outpouring of love and generosity from our fellow American citizens and the support we have received from them is so very greatly appreciated that we cannot find the words to adequately express our gratitude. If only Congress reflected their concern.


Individual Comment

2002-01-12