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. November 21,2001 Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20530 Re Victims Compensation Fund Dear Mr Zwick: I am writing this letter to you on behalf of &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp , whose husband, &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This letter to you is in response to your request for comments about the Victims Compensation Fund. The Victims Compensation Fund's interest is to attempt to make whole the families of the victims. To this end, I would like to voice my support, for the following comments, which are also being made by other advocates for the families. OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD First, and formost, the fund should provide a complete and full opportunity for each family to be heard, should they choose to do so. Each family rightfully deserves the opportunity to be fairly heard before a hearing officer. They should have to present evidence through their own testimony and the testimony of expert witness. Each case should be considered on a case-by-case basis. RIGHT TO APPEAL AND FORM OF PAYMENT Secondly, there should be a right to appeal. Additionally, the payments should be in one lump sum, and be paid to the beneficiary, consistent with what the investment cousel is Kennith L. Zwick Director November 19,2001 Page 2 the best for individual family circumstances. Thus, for example, parents should be allowed to request that any payment made to minor children to be in trust. In addition, the parent of said minor children should determine the date of vesting. The trust should not automatically be paid to the child at the age of 18, unless the parents determine it is in the children's own best interests to do so. ECONOMIC LOSSES Third, and of paramount importance, is the computation of economic losses. There should be no cap placed upon this portion of recovery. Simply put, no one should be penalized because their spouse worked long, hard hours and earned a "good salary". An approach like that used in personal injury actions is most appropriate. Retirement should be set at age 68. The decedent's income should be averaged over the past 3 working years. The decendent age should be subtracted from 68. Those numbers should be multipled together, thereby gleaning a starting point for computation. From this base point, other factors such as inflation, wage-increases, merit, likely bonuses and advancement and any other benefits should be considered. NON ECONOMIC LOSSES Fourth, with regard to the non-economic losses of the fund, there should be absolutely be no cap on this amount. Each person's circumstances must be evaluated individually. Each case should take into account age of the decedent, martial status of the decedent, and the numbers and age of the decedents's children, the severity of the pain and suffering of each affected individual (both mental and physical), including the person injured or killed, the spouse, the children and the parents. Compensation for non-economic losses is crucial for the survival of some families. Any family who has a considerable amount of coverage in life insurance will need some incentive to enter the fund, especially if life insurance proceeds will be deducted from any recovery. COLLATERAL SOURCES Finally, the amount of collateral source recovery, used to offset any amount recovered from the funds should be limited. Life insurance brought and paid for by the decedent should not be deducted from the fund payments. Simply put, life insurance is not taxed by the IRS for one reason-it encourages people to plan for their heirs. To deduct personal life insurance from fund payments would penalize those who were responsible estate planners. Kennith L. Zwick Director November 19,2001 Page 3 To the extent that the statue requires life insurance to be deducted from any recovery, the regulations should limit the reduction to employer life insurance. Moreover, IRS's, 401k plans and defined contributions retirement plans should not be deducted from the fund's recovery amount. These plans were primarily saved for by the victims. They are in reality savings accounts, and they should not be deducted from the fund any more than other assets saved by the victims should be deducted. With regard to charity, Americans across this country donated their-earned money as a symbol of their patriotism, and our brotherhood as a nation. To deduct this charity money from any final payment would, simply be wrong. In closing, I would like to thank you for asking for and considering our comments from families of the victims. Sincerely, Individual Comment New York, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-21 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 dojW000789.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. 2001-11-21