GOP under pressure for opposition to 9-11 responders bill
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By Lisa Mascaro and Tina Susman, Tribune Washington Bureau
December 20, 2010, 5:22 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are coming under growing criticism for their opposition to a bill that would provide medical care for Sept. 11 attack responders and survivors, including ailing police officers and firefighters.
As advocates press for Senate approval, Republican resistance to the measure has grown increasingly untenable. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the GOP fashioned itself as the party that celebrated the heroism of the Sept. 11 workers, but now is seen by many as stalling the health care of last resort.
"I can tell you, whoever votes against 9/11 responders a couple of days before Christmas is truly un-American," said John Feal, a former New York Police Department supervisor who lost a foot when a steel beam fell on it during in recovery efforts at the World Trade Center and who launched the non-profit Feal Good Foundation to lobby on behalf of first responders.
Further eroding the GOP's political position has been support for the legislation from prominent Republican leaders, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. New York's senators now believe they have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster in a vote that may be held as early as Tuesday.
"We are on the verge of an eleventh-hour breakthrough," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Passage even now may come too late for many. Rev. Stephan (cq) Petrovic of Ohio, a chaplain who tended to the dead and dying at the World Trade Center and who now is in hospice care, does not expect to see another Christmas. Petrovic, his voice barely audible, suffered lung damage he said resulted from breathing dust at Ground Zero following the attack.
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