Leahy, Daschle Introduce
Anthrax Victims Fund Fairness Act
[Sens. Patrick Leahy and Tom
Daschle Thursday introduced a bill to include the victims of the
anthrax attacks and the victims’ survivors under the terms offered
by the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (PL 107-42; 49 USC
40101). The Leahy-Daschle bill (cosponsored by Sens. Lautenberg,
Nelson of Florida, Feingold, Corzine, Mikulski and Sarbanes) would
allow compensation for the U.S. citizens who were victims of
terrorist-related laboratory-confirmed anthrax infections between
Sept. 13 and Nov. 30, 2001. (Daschle and Leahy, the targets of the
Senate anthrax attacks, were not infected with anthrax and would not
be eligible for relief under the bill.) The bill would also extend
the Fund’s filing deadline for ALL victims by one year. Leahy and
Daschle will speak on the Senate Floor at about 10 a.m. Thursday to
introduce the bill. Leahy’s statement and the text of the bill
follow:] [PDF version of the Anthrax
Victims Fund Fairness Act of 2003]
________________________________
Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
On The Introduction Of The Anthrax Victims Fund Fairness Act of 2003
October 16, 2003
Mr. President, two years have passed since
several anthrax letters were sent to a few journalists and public
officials, killing inadvertent victims who were dutifully doing
their jobs, and leaving several others sick and out of work.
The Senate and all who work here are still
adjusting to the aftermath of the attacks, two years later. We see
it in new layers of security. We see it in new mail handling
procedures in which mail to Capitol Hill now is screened and
irradiated before it is delivered. The U.S. Postal Service has had
to develop and implement new safety measures to protect its
customers and its workers. Meanwhile, nearly two dozen of our
fellow Americans who merely came into contact with these
anthrax-laden letters have become the forgotten victims of terror.
Some have suffered poor health, and some have not been able to
return to work.
I rise today to introduce, with my good friends
Senators Daschle, Lautenberg, Nelson of Florida, Feingold, Corzine,
Mikulski, and Sarbanes the Anthrax Victims Fund Fairness Act of
2003, a bill that will allow these forgotten victims of terror, and
their families, to seek help through the September 11th
Victims Compensation Fund. They need this help to pay for medical
expenses and to provide for themselves and their families if they
have been unable to return to work. They are our fellow citizens,
and they were unwittingly on the front lines when our new shadowy
struggle against terrorism began.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of
September 11th, we learned that the United States was not
impervious to acts of terrorism of the kinds that have rained death
and destruction on other societies, far away. The attacks shocked
the world and left the American people with the terrible knowledge
that we could once again become a target for terrorists, at any
time. Only a few short days later, some of our worst fears were
confirmed. Between September 22nd and November 14th,
nearly two dozen Americans from five states and the District of
Columbia became casualties of a sinister bioterrorism attack.
Twenty-two Americans ranging in age from seven months to 94 years
were stricken in these attacks of anthrax -- a rare disease that had
only afflicted a handful of Americans in the last century. We would
ultimately learn that 11 people had been infected with cutaneous or
skin anthrax, and 11 had contracted the more serious form of the
disease, called inhalation or pulmonary anthrax. Five of our fellow
Americans died from these attacks.
The victims of the anthrax attacks vary in
gender, race, religion, age, economic status and locale, but they
have all suffered. The targets were members of the news media and
two members of the United States Senate, but the victims who
suffered the most were employees of the U.S. Postal Service, of the
Department of State, of news organizations and of the Senate, and
the aides, the children and the senior citizens whose mail came in
contact with the anthrax-laden letters.
In the fall of 2001, I worked with Speaker
Hastert, Senator Daschle, Senator Lott and Congressman Gephardt, and
with Senators Hatch, Kohl, DeWine, Schumer and Clinton, to
establish the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. This
fund ensured that victims of the September 11th attacks would be
eligible for compensation for the horrific losses that they had
suffered. After extensive negotiations with the Bush
Administration, we established the September 11th Fund to provide
victims with an alternative to what would likely have been lengthy
battles in court.
Under the stewardship of Ken Feinberg, the
Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and
with the supervision of the Department of Justice, more than 1,000
of the 3,016 families of those who died in the September 11th
attacks, and more than 1,000 of the unknown number who were injured
have filed claims. The fund, which has no cap, had paid out $633
million by September 10, 2003, with an average award of about $1.6
million for death claims. The fund has offered a dignified process
for victims and their grieving families and has been regarded as a
solid success in achieving its goals.
As we reach the two-year anniversary of the
anthrax attacks, Congress should do the same for those whose lives
were harmed by these acts of bioterrorism as it did for the victims
of September 11, 2001. While we have taken significant steps to
compensate the victims of the September 11th attacks and
their families, no such action has been taken on behalf of the
anthrax victims. Our legislation would remedy this.
Our bill would extend the deadline for filing
claims with the fund by one year and expand the eligibility to
include laboratory-confirmed anthrax cases. The Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) have confirmed 18 anthrax infections, and an
additional four are considered to have been confirmed through other
methods. Applicants would be subject to the same criteria and
restrictions as were set for the September 11th victims. Eligible
individuals who choose to file claims would then be considered by
the Special Master who would make a final determination on level of
compensation within 120 days of receiving the claim. Compensation
will be targeted to help the neediest victims and their families.
Any life insurance, death benefit, or other government payment
previously received by victims and their families would be taken
into account, and filing a claim would preclude other civil
remedies.
Mr. President, yesterday marked the two-year
anniversary of the opening of the letter that spread anthrax
throughout the Hart Senate Office Building, exposing 31 Senate
employees to a highly potent and aerosolized form of anthrax and
shutting down the Dirksen Senate Office Building for two weeks, the
Hart Senate Office Building for three months and briefly closing the
United States Capitol. Our staffs were fortunate to receive
excellent care and guidance from the Sergeant at Arms, the CDC, the
Attending Physician and the Environmental Protection Agency, and
none of the employees of the Senate were ultimately infected. Those
days are indelibly etched in our memories. To this day, Senator
Daschle and I do not know what motivated someone to target us and to
endanger our staffs and so many others. Senator Daschle and I were
the targets of the Senate letters, but we were not stricken with
anthrax, and we would not be covered by the terms of this
legislation.
Eighteen of the victims were not as fortunate
as were most of us in the Senate family. While some did recover
after receiving antibiotics, others have had their lives changed
forever. Some are stricken with ailments, such as post-traumatic
stress, depression and fatigue. They continue to suffer from the
after-effects of the disease.
One postal worker who was infected with anthrax
filed a $100 million suit against the U.S. Postal Service in January
2003. He did not want to have to take his case to court, but he
says he felt he had to after repeated attempts to receive
compensation and assistance in treating his illness. Last month, on
September 24, the widow of the first anthrax victim in Florida filed
lawsuits seeking more than $50 million and alleging that
insufficient security at the Army Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and negligent actions
by companies with military contracts, caused her husband’s death.
This bill would help these and other victims without forcing them
to take their cases to the legal system.
The perpetrator or perpetrators of these acts
of terrorism remain at large, and the F.B.I. continues its search.
These victims cannot wait until the search is over. They deserve
help now and we owe it to them to provide it.
Yesterday I joined with the senior senator from
Pennsylvania, both senators from New York, and with others in
introducing separate legislation to extend the broaden the fund’s
coverage to cover the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center
attacks, the 1998 East African embassy attacks and the 2000 U.S.S.
Cole attacks. I applaud Senator Specter for his leadership in this
area. All Americans who have been victimized by acts of terrorism
deserve our sympathy, our respect and our support.
Mr. President, our hearts went out to the
victims of these acts of terrorism and to their loved ones. Now
they also need our help, and it is my hope that we will do the right
thing by these victims of terrorism.
# # #
# #
Related Links:
Bill
Text Of The Anthrax Victims Fund Fairness Act Of 2003 [PDF
version]
