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. January 17, 2002 Mr. Kenneth Zwick, Director Office of Management of Programs U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530 Re: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, Interim Final Rule with Request for Comments Dear Sir: My wife, daughter and I had the honor of having our son with us for almost thirty-four years. His wife shared that honor for the last six years. Now we all have the equal horror of grieving for a wonderful and respectful young man who was killed through no fault of his own, but because he went to work the morning of September 11 on the floor of the North Building of the World Trade Center. What we do not have is equal recognition under the law for the loss that we all equally have. My wife, gave birth to him. We both raised him by providing all the guidance, friendship, substance and mostly love that a child could possibly need and want. After he married, we continued to speak to him several times a week and see both our son and daughter-in-law frequently. His older sister, , was one of his best friends. In recent years they lived over one hundred miles apart, but were always together in their hearts. They spoke to each other a few times a week. We thank you for the opportunity to comment today on the Interim Final Rule. Our comments are as follows: 1 The Regulations and Guidance Should Clearly State that Parents Whose Children Were Killed on September 11th Are Presumed to be Eligible for Distribution of all Compensation Awards. Our grief for our son is as great as that of anyone's and what we ask is that this fact be recognized under the law. Our lives have turned into a living hell and we must receive equal compensation for this insurmountable loss and unending pain and suffering that we are struggling to endure. New York State law recognizes that parents are to share in the distribution of any damages awarded in a wrongful death action. Under EPTL Section 5-4.4, parents of children without children of their own are specifically named distributes, even if they are not recognized by the state as beneficiaries of the estate. The final regulations and guidance to be issued under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 should clearly state the same. To do otherwise will create undo confusion and pain on the part of families who have already lost far too much. If the goal of the September 11th Fund is to prevent families from feeling that their only option is to sue, The Fund should clearly provide that other options exist and that compensation to all Family members, not just spouses will result. Ambiguity and vagueness is not helpful in this case, but is instead counterproductive for both the families and the government. To neglect to provided the clarity requested here will result in excessive pain and suffering clearly not envisioned when Congress passed Title IV (Victim Compensation) of the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (the"Act"). Finally, the regulations wisely anticipate that disputes among family members may ensue. As Special Master to the Fund, you have a unique opportunity to minimize the number of such disputes by providing as much clarity as possible up front so there are as few disputes as possible within the families over the law's intent. This is an incredibly difficult time for the thousand of families effected by the horrific events of September 11th. We urge you not to add to this difficulty by creating conflicting opinions over the intent of your own words and actions. 2 To Deduct Life Insurance and Pension Payments From the Compensation Awards is Counter To Public Policy and is Grossly Unfair to Families Whose Loved Ones Took Responsible Steps to Plan For Their Families' Futures It is not equitable that insurance and pensions be deducted from the total compensation. Simply because some of the victims had the foresight to provide for their families should not be held against them. This is why in most civil litigation life insurance is not deducted from damage awards. Nor should the fact that some had pensions be held against them. If you want to deduct the pensions that they earned, then the total of the pensions should be included in the gross compensation as part of their earning power over their expected term of employment. The liability for wrongful death should be measure by total potential earnings and pain and suffering to both the victims and their families. Should the regulations not be able to be modified due to the language of the Act itself requiring that compensation must be reduced by collateral sources (Section 405 (b)(6), perhaps an alternative would be to reduce the compensation by a percentage of the total amount of the collateral sources. Nothing in the Act Specifies that the reduction must be dollar for dollar. 3 The Claim Form Should Include a Provision Requiring Disclosure of, and to, all Living Immediate Family Members In Order to Ensure a Knowing and Effective Waiver of Suit is made. We are all at a significant disadvantage in that no claim form was provided in the Interim Final Rule to review. Thus, in the absence of such a draft form, one can only speculate what will be asked of the personal representative when making a claim. At minimum, the form should require the personal representative to disclose the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all living immediate family members. For the purpose of this regulation, immediate family members should be defined to include spouses, children, parents and siblings. In addition, the regulations should also require that effective notice of the filing of a claim (within a reasonable period of time) be given to all such relatives giving them the opportunity to opt in or out. To do otherwise would unfairly affect other relative's rights to sue by risking an unknowing waiver of the right to sue. No one should be bound by the actions of others of which they were not made aware. 4 A clear definition of "dependent" as used in the section "presumed non-economic loss" should be given. At a recent meeting attended y Special Master Feinberg the definition of dependent was given to be not limited to that used by the Internal Revenue Service, but intended to include the relatives to who support was or was intended to be given by the victims. In our case this should include the support given to my wife when she was ill with cancer and the support given to me when I had by-pass surgery. In both cases our son was there with us constantly, being of both physical and emotional help to us. Our daughter recently told us of a conversation that she had with our son, that if we would be in need of long-term care they would both contribute to it. These are but a few cases of what should be included in the definition of dependent. The people of this great country have put in your hands the means that will help us begin to shape our future. We urge you to write the regulations so that this may come about. We appreciate your work on this project and hope you will take our thoughts into consideration. If we can be of any further assistance, or provide any additional information, please feel free to call us at the following phone number . Thank you, Individual Comment Mourve Township, NJ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-17 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 dojN002648.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. 2002-01-17