Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty
Days afterhis plea to Congresswent viral,Jon Stewartcontinued to petition for a bill that would give lasting health care support to 9/11 responders and victims — and he criticized Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnellfor what he said was a lack of care about the issue.
The next day, McConnell, 77, said onFox & Friendsthat “many things in Congress have [come] at the last minute. We have never failed to address this issue, and we will address it again.”
“I don’t know why he [Stewart] is all bent out of shape, but we will take care of the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund,” McConnell said.
“There is no way we won’t address this problem appropriately,” he said, though he noted he was not familiar with the latest version of the funding bill. (His office referred PEOPLE to that interview when asked for comment.)
Stewart has previously expressed disapproval over McConnell’s handling of legislation for theSeptember 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
“So far, he has been an enormous obstacle, unwilling to move the bill forward for purely political reasons,” Stewartsaid onThe Daily Showin 2015, describing the senator as “not nice.”
McConnellsaid thenthat “everybody was for” the funding and “this is a worthwhile cause and we’ll take care of it.”
“Not all Republicans oppose this, but everyone who has opposed it is a Republican, and it’s unacceptable,” Stewart said this week on Fox.
While Stewart called McConnell out, he spent most of hisFox News Sundayinterview explaining his frustrations with Congress’ seeming apathy toward renewing the compensation fund — and the desperate need for it.
He was expounding on the same views he expressed last week when, along with several first responders, he appeared before a portion of the House Judiciary Committee.
The next day, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would reauthorize the compensation fund until 2090,according to NPR. With some310 co-sponsors, it is set for bipartisan passage in the House.
While the fund was re-authorized in 2015, for five more years, in February government officials warnedit was too quickly running out of moneyand would have to reduce aid to those in need.
Luis Alvarez and Jon Stewart.Zach Gibson/Getty
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“I think this community is at the end of their rope,” Stewart said onFox News Sunday, noting that seven more 9/11 first responders died last week.
“I think there’s a feeling of disbelief, that they can’t understand why they have to continually saddle up and ride down to Washington and make these appeals for something that should be simple but is somehow, through politics, made agonizingly difficult,” he continued.
In recent years, more and more9/11 first responders have been diagnosed with illnessesthat havebeen linkedto their participation in rescue and recovery efforts following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stewart said on Sunday: “We cannot make these individuals continue to live in the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing if these programs will be extended, and that they will be able to move on with their lives.”
source: people.com
