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. Congress of the United States Washington, DC, 20515 October 16, 2001 The Honorable John Ashcroft Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Ashcroft: We are writing to draw your attention to unmet crime victim service needs of family members, friends, and colleagues of Massachusetts victims of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Over 70 residents of Massachusetts were aboard the two flights that crashed into the WTC. Massachusetts, through its proximity to New York City, is home to many family members of victims who worked in the WTC. In addition, several of the companies that had office space in the WTC were Boston-based companies. As a result, Massachusetts organizations and agencies that provide service to victims of crime are providing needed assistance to hundreds of family members, friends, and colleagues of victims of the September 11 attacks. As you know, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) was established by the 1984 Victims of Crime Act and provides substantial funding to state victim assistance and compensation programs. We urge you to consider allocating some funds from the $40 billion emergency supplemental bill that Congress passed to respond to the terrorist attacks to OVC to support critical victim services. OVC funds two major formula grant programs -- Victim Compensation and Victim Assistance. Through these initiatives, it directs funding to victim services programs on the front lines that provide specialized homicide bereavement, crisis response, and hate crime victim services to the many families across the country who need and will be needing services as a result of the attacks on September 11. In Massachusetts, victim services programs were already stretched beyond their capacity with the general crime victim population before September 11, but the demands being made on these organizations since then are enormous. Without the assurance of additional federal or state funding, Massachusetts crime victim service agencies have stepped up to meet the needs of the families of the over 70 victims from our state on the two doomed flights that originated from Boston's Logan Airport and the Massachusetts residents and companies in the WTC. Counselors have logged tremendous hours of overtime working directly with families of victims; one agency has established a Terrorist Attack Support Group; another has dispatched bilingual counselors to schools to calm the special fears of immigrant children. To meet the overwhelming and continuing demand for victim services in the wake of the terrorist acts, agencies in Massachusetts and nationwide are in need of emergency funding. It is our sincere hope that additional funding will be allocated to OVC for these purposes. We appreciate your attention to this matter. Sincerely, John F. Kerry Edward M. Kennedy Edward J. Madrey Barney Frank Richard E. Neal John W. Olver Martin T. Meelan John F. Tierney William Delahint James P. McGovern Michael Capuano September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-10-16 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 dojW000782.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. 2001-10-16