Congress Criticizes Federal Response to Illnesses After 9/11 and Seeks More Spending

Article in the New York Times — Congress Criticizes Federal Response to Illnesses After 9/11 and Seeks More Spending, by Anthony DePalma:

    After listening to recovery workers at ground zero and downtown residents
    emotionally describe how they had been ignored and insulted as they sought
    help for health problems after 9/11, members of a Congressional subcommittee
    roundly criticized the federal response yesterday and called for sharply increased
    medical spending.

    Subcommittee members, joined by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles
    E. Schumer, accused the Bush administration of ignoring the health problems that
    arose among workers who toiled at ground zero and the claims of downtown residents
    who say they were also sickened by the dust. The administration has done little to
    prepare for a similar disaster in the future, they said.

    “Today it appears the public health approach to lingering environmental hazards
    remains unfocused and halting,” said Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican
    from Connecticut, and chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security,
    Emerging Threats and International Relations, which held the hearing in Lower
    Manhattan, a block from ground zero. “The unquestionable need for long-term
    monitoring has been met with only short term commitments.”