Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Monday, November 26, 2001 2:38 PM Survivor Definitions Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20530 Dear Mr. Zwick: First of all I would like to thank the DOJ for encouraging the use of email as a way to submit public comments on the issue of victim compensation after the tragic Sept. 11 attack. I am writing to urge your department to write the regulations to carry out the intent and spirit of the law by compensating all of those who suffered both grievous emotional loss from these murders, and significant financial loss as well. I believe that the federal government should provide such compensation as is appropriate to all of those who had a close relationship with the murdered victim and whose own financial position will be seriously adversely affected by the death. Relevant indicators of such a relationship include a shared residence, shared bank accounts for other financial instruments, joint membership in a health plan, a significant sharing of living expenses, etc. Obviously a wide range of different personal relationships will be covered by this, and we believe that this coverage is wholly appropriate in this instance. We note that this is the approach taken by Republican Governor George Pataki of New York, where so many of the victims live. Individual Comment Minneapolis, MN Attached: 1. Letter to AG Ashcroft from a bipartisan group of Congress Members on this subject 2. Washington Post Article that features a woman struggling with this issue in Virginia Attachment 1: November 15, 2001 The Honorable John Ashcroft Attorney General Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Dear Mr. Attorney General, We applaud the approach you are taking in soliciting wide public comment in fulfilling your legislative mandate to promulgate regulations governing the distribution of funds voted by Congress and approved by the President for victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11. Because it was important for us to act speedily, the legislation of necessity sets out broad guidelines and leaves to you and your department the job of providing specificity so that these funds can be distributed fairly and expeditiously. We write to express our view on one aspect of this important set of questions which is before you -- namely, we urge that in creating the category of those who qualify as "survivors of someone lost in the crashes", (Topic 5, Notice of Inquiry), we can best carry out the intent and spirit of the law by compensating all of those who suffered both grievous emotional loss from these murders, and significant financial loss as well. That is, we believe that the federal government should provide such compensation as is appropriate to all of those who had a close relationship with the murdered victim and whose own financial position will be seriously adversely affected by the death. Relevant indicia of such a relationship include a shared residence, shared bank accounts for other financial instruments, joint membership in a health plan, a significant sharing of living expenses, etc. Obviously a wide range of different personal relationships will be covered by this, and we believe that this coverage is wholly appropriate in this instance. We note that this is the approach taken by Governor George Pataki of New York, where so many of the victims live. The act we passed was not an effort by the Congress to regulate any set of personal relationships, nor to encourage or discourage people from following any particular pattern in their living arrangements. It was simply a prompt response by the Congress to the terrible murders inflicted on America on September 11, in particular by doing what we can to come to the aid of those who were particularly victimized by the deaths of people close to them. Aiding all of this latter category of victims seems to us the appropriate response. September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojW000599.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-26