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SCOOP: With VP Pence going to NYC to hail first responders on 9/11 tomoro, we reveal that the Treasury Dept has secretly withheld nearly $4 million from the FDNY's 9/11 treatment program, and has refused to give it back, or explain. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-fdny-911-health-program-treasury-20200910-s7yam67j6vhmhbdzg6ordanfdm-story.html
FDNY 9/11 treatment director Dr. David Prezant: "This [money] was just disappearing. Now, I want you to hear this, because this is the most amazing thing. This was disappearing -- without any notification."
Prezant: "Here we have sick World Trade Center-exposed firefighters and EMS workers, at a time when the city is having difficult financial circumstances due to COVID-19, and we're not getting the money we need to be able to treat these heroes."
Rep. Pete King (R-NY) says he's confronting Pence and Mnuchin: "I don't even care what the details of this thing is. That fund has has to be fully compensated, fully reimbursed. I mean, this is absurd.. If anyone were true American heroes, it was the cops and firemen on 9/11."
The story is bizarre, but remember it took responders more than a decade to get Congress to make 9/11 treatment permanent. And along the way, they required any ill responder seeking care to be run thru the terrorism database.
Jake Lemonda of Uniformed Fire Officers Association: "It's despicable.. We've fought very hard for many years for these funds to provide proper medical treatment for our sick and injured. The withholding of these funds without a legitimate explanation is inexcusable.”
Pete King doesn't see this as deliberate, but said it made no sense. "Why? I mean, the Fire Department? They're not DeBlasio, they're not New York City blue.. From a political point of view, these are the guys who should and do represent everything that Trump says he's for.."
More King: "It makes no sense. They certainly have never been hostile to Trump. You don't see firefighters picketing against Trump or Republicans."
Chuck Schumer is not pleased: “The Trump Treasury Department siphoning congressionally appropriated funds meant to pay for 9-11 workers’ healthcare is an outrageous finger in the eye to the firefighters, cops and other first responders who risked their lives for us on 9-11.."
More Schumer, on the Treasury Dept withholding 9/11 treatment $$: "This needs to stop forthwith and payments to the workers’ health program must be made whole—and now.”
