Jon Stewart’s Shaming Worked As House Committee Unanimously Passes 9/11 Victims Funding Bill

A day after being shamed by Jon Stewart, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed additional funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund through 2090.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler said, “Every sick responder and survivor should be treated with the same dignity and compassion. All responders and survivors, whether they got sick in 2015 or will get sick in 2025 or 2035, should be properly compensated. Congress must act to make that happen.”

Republicans have consistently fought obstructed and delayed additional funding for 9/11 victims. Stewart has been waging this battle for years, and let Congress know that he is sick of having to fight for every penny yesterday during a subcommittee hearing.

Stewart said on Tuesday, “I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic, but I’m angry, and you should be, too, and they’re all angry as well and they have every justification to be that way…This hearing should be flipped. These men and women should be up on this stage, Congress should be down here answering their questions as to why this is so damn hard and take so damn long.”

Video of Stewart:

Jon Stewart has been fighting this fight for years. He has been coming to Washington and slamming Congress’s indifference to 9/11 first responders since 2015. The crisis in 9/11 first responder funding was Republican generated, and it remains to be seen whether the bill that is certain to pass the House will be brought to the floor for a vote, much less pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

Stewart won in the House, but now he is going to have to keep fighting to get passage in the Senate and Trump to sign the funding into law.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association