9/11 Health Bill Backers Rallying On Pearl Harbor Day
NEW YORK (WCBS 880 / CBS 2) - On the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, supporters of the 9/11 health bill are again rallying in Washington.
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WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reports
360 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress passed the War Hazards Compensation Act. It has now been over nine years since the attacks of 9/11.
9/11 advocate John Feal says that bill is comparable to the James Zadroga bill and the attacks were similar.
"[This is] because 9/11 and Pearl Harbor was an attack on this nation and great Americans came to help," Feal told WCBS 880 reporter Peter Haskell.
With supporters still needing one more Republican vote in the U.S. Senate, Feal isn't giving up, saying, "We keep putting the pressure on them. We have filled their e-mail boxes. We've filled them with phone calls and [stuffed] their voicemails."
This is Feal's 87th trip to Washington to lobby for the bill.
On Monday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) made an emotional plea for support for the bill.
Gillibrand read a letter from a police officer who eventually died of cancer he likely got due to his work at Ground Zero.
A key test vote is expected in the Senate on Wednesday. The bill has already passed the House.
