A bill that would recoup offset responders and survivors of the September 11 terrorist attacks who have since fallen ill from the toxins and chemicals they inhaled at the site has been blocked in the Senate by Rand Paul and Mike Lee.

Utah Senator Mike Lee placed a procedural concur on the extension of the ix/11 bounty fund Midweek, blocking it from coming to a floor vote. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand responded by asking for unanimous consent to laissez passer the compensation pecker, which would override Lee'southward temporary block of the bill. But by voting in the negative, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul ended the motion to unanimously laissez passer the bill, which has significant nonpartisan support. Lee contends that there's still time to get an amended version of the bill passed before the August recess begins.

"I reserve the right to object," said Paul. "It has long been my feeling that we demand to address our massive debt in this land—nosotros have a $22 trillion debt, [and] nosotros're adding debt at about a trillion dollars a year—and therefore any new spending that nosotros are approaching, any new program that'southward going to accept longevity of seventy, 80 years, should be offset past cut spending that's less valuable."

Paul, however, did vote in favor of President Donald Trump's $1.2 trillion tax cutting plan.

Dorsum on the floor, Paul said he'd consider the beak with an amendment to first spending one time information technology came to the floor.

"I am deeply disappointed that my colleague has just objected to the desperately needed and urgent bill for our 9/eleven outset responders," said Gillibrand on Twitter. "Plenty with the political games."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor to directly accost Paul and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell.

"You tin come upwards with 10,000 reasons non to practise something. But y'all shouldn't come upward with any reason why not to do something noble and right," he said. "I would urge my friend from Kentucky to withdraw his objection. I would urge my friend, Senator McConnell, the Leader, to put it on the floor now. And we can let these folks in the gallery then many others do what they need to do—help their families, help their friends, and make certain their health is given the best, best protection possible."

Since 9/11, there have been more than 2,077 certified cancer weather condition in firefighters caused by the toxins breathed in on September 11 and afterwards. In total, there accept been 9,300 registered cancer conditions related to the backwash. More people have now died because of toxins breathed in at basis zero sites than did during the September 11 attacks.

The Victim Compensation Fund was passed by Congress in 2011 to assistance beginning costs for those affected past the fires and dangerous air from the World Trade Centre, Pentagon and Shanksville attacks and was renewed with additional funding in 2015.

The current extension of the pecker, which passed the House with a vote of 402-12, would permanently fund payments for first responders, their families and other affected survivors of the attacks.

9/11 Victim's Compensation Fund
Retired Burn down Department of New York Lieutenant and 9/11 responder Michael O'Connelll, FealGood Foundation co-founder John Feal, and Quondam Daily Show Host Jon Stewart, speak to Retired New York Law Section detective and 9/11 responder Luis Alvarez during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on reauthorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund on Capitol Hill. Zach Gibson/Getty

The legislation is expected to price about $10.2 billion over the next decade. This February, the fund's special primary, Rupa Bhattacharyya, announced that more than claims were coming in than the fund could answer and that time to come payouts would be reduced by l to 70 percentage without the extension.

Immediately post-obit the September eleven attacks EPA administrator Christine Whitman declared the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. She subsequently admitted she was wrong and "feels awful" almost it.

"I'k very sad that people are sick," she told The Guardian in 2016. "I'm very pitiful that people are dying and if the EPA and I in whatever way contributed to that, I'm deplorable. We did the very best we could at the time with the noesis we had."

New York Representative Carolyn Maloney said terminal week that the responders deserved bounty largely because of "the toxic prevarication our government told [commencement responders], that it was condom to work on the site when it clearly was not and because of their exposure to toxins, many of them have cancers and are sick and dying."

McConnell has attempted to block funding for the neb in the past, only initially seemed more than open to information technology this fourth dimension effectually. "Gosh, I hadn't looked at that lately. I'll accept to. Nosotros've always dealt with that in the past in a compassionate way, and I assume we will again," he commented to reporters concluding month.

Firefighters who were outside of the Senate said they were turned away past Senator Mike Lee's staff when they attempted to speak to him about his decision to block the bill. Lee however made time for his "Jell-O Wednesday" event in Washington D.C. this afternoon.