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The fight to fund health care for 911. Heroes continues. Lawmakers are pushing for the 911. Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2024. They say it would close a more than $3 billion funding gap in the World Trade Center Health Program news. Twelve's Rich Barab sat down with a local lawyer and doctor who are working with survivors about why this money is most needed. Now joining us right now is NYU Doctor Mark Wilkenfeld, one of the doctors working with the World Trade Center Health Program and Michael Barris, she's the managing partner for law firm Bars and mcgarry, which represents victims in the 911 community. Thank you both for being here, we appreciate for having us. Thank you very much. Uh First, let's talk about what's happening in Washington. You were there on Capitol Hill once again asking lawmakers to react and respond. Where do the talk stand right now? Well, first of all, I just wanna say it's so heartbreaking that I have to go back to Washington with so many sick responders. Thank God for John Field because he's our hero leading the charge. But also this is a bipartisan bill who could possibly be against funding health care for sick responders. And it's also sick civilians because as you remember, the EPA told us the air was safe to breathe wasn't so safe. So not surprisingly, we're seeing so many school Children or former school Children, downtown residents and office workers, they're coming down with the same illnesses as the first responders and this health care which Doctor Wilkin help takes care of. So many sick um responders and civilians is so important because it allows for early detect, which I know it sounds corny, but that's the key to a longer survival. So it's sad that we have to be down, back down there. But thanks to Senators Gillibrand Schumer and the Republicans in the New York area. I am very confident we're gonna get this additional care because it was a promise made to us by our government when they initially told us air was safe. So they have to do the right thing here. Doctor Wilkenfeld. We have seen time and time again over the years, first responders, survivors of those terrorist attacks, having to go down to Washington to make sure lawmakers maybe from other parts of the country. Understand exactly what's taking place here. You see it every day to this day. Correct. I've been seeing it for 20 years. Unfortunately, I've seen seen well over 1000 responders and, and survivors. And to me, you know, as a doctor is not a politician. It doesn't make any sense. You know, these are people that, that they selflessly, the stories that they tell they selflessly went down. They, they ran into collapsing buildings. They tried to save people. Now, you know, 20 years later, they, they're not asking for a lot. All they're asking for is that their health conditions that occurred as a result of what they did be taken care of? Doctor. Are you still seeing new illnesses and new patients? That, that's a very interesting question. So we, we see illnesses. There's this list of conditions that are covered, there's a procedure to add covered conditions. Um We've done research, for example, on neuropathy on, on nerve damage, we show that nerve damage is covered and now we're trying to get that added as well. But you know, we see new conditions, there's a lot of research going on and um it's, you see unexpected things, I mean rich, they've now added 69 cancers as presumed linked to the World Trade Center Toxins. So it doesn't matter if you have breast cancer and you think, oh, it couldn't have been related to when I was down working at Goldman Sachs or on the Stock exchange or as a first responder. There's if your mother had it, it doesn't matter. There's a presumption linking breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer and 66 other cancers. And don't feel guilty about taking away from firefighters and cops because the victim compensation fund, which awards compensation to people with certified illnesses has been fully funded and extended until 2090 by the way. And I was also glad to hear you mention all over the country because responders did come from all over the country and cops, firefighters and teachers who were in lower Manhattan have moved all over the country. There's health care available to them as long as we don't run out of funding for the health care, Michael. Are you optimistic that uh action will be taken this year? Considering that we are closing in on a president presidential election and sometimes in those final months of the year, it can be difficult to get legislation passed. That's a great question. Yes, it can be. And I'm not, I'm, I've been to Washington over 25 times now since I represented James Zen Roga, for whom they named the original bill. Um I see they can't even agree what day of the week it is sometimes in Washington. But as I said, this is a non, this is nonpartisan. It's bipartisan. In this case, we have Republicans and Democrats supporting it. I am optimistic because it's the right thing to do. The morally right thing to do. You think about people coming in with new illnesses 20 plus years after the attacks. Who could have ever thought that's what would have happened in the immediate aftermath of 911. Yeah, we've lost. As I mentioned over 6000 people to 911 illnesses already. So this is not gonna end and it's only gonna get worse and worse. Well, think about it. And this is the most surprising thing. More people died as a result of the toxins than died on 911. And there's a, you know, doctors, uh, everybody, people say to me is that still going on 20 years later. I mean, if you're not in it for, for Michael and I, this is our world. If you're not in it, you figure it's over and you know, the, the bill is presumptive and people don't understand this. You don't have to go to court and prove that that your lung cancer came as a result of the exposure. All you need to do is show that you were there and it was a latency period. There was enough time in between and you have the disease. So there's, there's no court fights. Yeah, the government actually did the right thing by passing the James Z Roger Bill which then added Pfeiffer and Alvarez's names to it when they uh did the autopsy of Jimmy Z Roger, they found ground glass in his lungs as well as a host of other carcinogens. Well, if he had it in his lungs, so do we all and all I do is urge people in the 911 community not just responders pro protect yourselves. Apply for the health program. Apply to the Victim Fund. Don't leave it to your families to do it. Don't wait until you get that diagnosis that you've got a terminal illness. We have about a minute left. Do you believe that there are still people out there who were there on that day who have yet to reach out for it? Thousands, tens of thousands. Why do you think that is? They think? Well, a lot of the people who live downtown think it's for the responders. A lot of people, they feel guilty, they say, I don't wanna take money away from the firefighters or they don't realize it's a presumptive bill that you don't have to prove the link that there's a presumption that your cancer was caused. And, uh, that's why we're here and we so appreciate you continuing to help us get the word coming up. A Brooklyn man buys a website on a whim four years ago. Ultimately predicting what would become the democratic presidential ticket in this election. How much he charged the Paris Walls campaign for that domain? Now, next on power and politics right here on News 12.

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Welcome back to power and politics for many Americans. The name Tim Walls was unknown until presidential candidate Kamala Harris named him as her running mate this week. But one Brooklyn man actually predicted the Harris Walls ticket four years ago and he made a bit of money on that decision. News. Tell Julia Joseph has his story. Cyber squatter. Jeremy Green calls himself. It's a hobby. You know, it's like when you bet on a sports game and it's a lot more interesting to watch. But s latest dub was not a Hail Mary for four years. I just sat on them. This game plan was four years in the making. I'm very happy that I sold Harris waltz.com a few days ago. I think that was the right price that price $15,000 all for a domain he bought for just nine bucks in 2020. It's genius. Yeah, it's, I like to think of it as gorilla marketing and he's no rookie. He predicted the 2016 Clinton came duo way back in 2011 for any presidential nominee you want to have balance on the ticket. He sold that website domain for $15,000. As well. This time around, she came back for round two to many Harris choosing walls was pretty random, not ache. I bought her name plus pretty much every male midwestern or southern governor and senator. I could think of Harris Pritzker, Harris Manchin and a handful of others. And then harris' announcement on Tuesday that turned out to be the winning domain luck, maybe strategy. Absolutely. But for this was marketing, they don't understand what these domains are worth. They think they're worth more in 15 K is plenty for him and his wife. It's three months of child care that cost them only 8 99 4 years ago in Sunset Park. Julia Joseph News 12 Brooklyn, an investment that certainly paid off Julia. Thank you. Meanwhile, Governor Tim Walls has some local connections. Earlier this week, we spoke with Bronx Congress member, Adriano Espaillat who's worked with walls and he tells us that he has what it takes to get the job done in Washington. I think he's a, a great candidate for vice president, someone who was a member of Congress when I was there obviously. So uh we, we were colleagues together, there are many people out there that feel that uh government is broken because we haven't found the ability to build consensus and work across the aisle. I think that that the governor will do that. A debate date has been set between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump for September 10th. Trump's team has agreed to the September 10th debate to take place on ABC. The former president's team also calling for two more debates to take place on NBC and Fox. That's all for this week here on power and politics on News. 12. Thanks for watching.

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Power & Politics: Rep. Torres on ‘the most dangerous block’ in the Bronx

Rep. Ritchie Torres and Rep. Adrianno Espallat join the show.

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