Massive spending bill fills $3B hole to support World Trade Center health fund

The program that provides health care for 9/11 heroes and survivors is finally getting the cash it desperately needs.The US Senate is set next week to fill a $3 billion funding shortfall that’s threatened coverage for roughly 140,000 people enrolled in the program — with 10,000 added last year alone, after the House passed the measure Thursday.“This is what everybody wanted, and we got it,” Rep.Garbarino (R-L.I.) told The Post.

“There should not be a shortfall that we have to address again.It’s truly permanent … We know what the treatments are.

We know the cause.So everybody has said this should take care of it.”In the Senate, the measure has backing from Sens.

Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, and is expected to clear Congress as part of a “minibus” spending bill, which requires a separate vote, that could avoid another government shutdown.A similar effort stalled at the end of 2024 when it got taken out of a continuing resolution to fund the government.The House overcame the biggest remaining hurdle last week when it passed the Homeland spending bill on a  220 to 207 vote, with seven Democrats breaking ranks with Minority Leader Rep.

Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) to support it.Jeffries wanted to impose more restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which gets funded in the same bill, calling the agency “totally out of control” after the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis.Congress enacted the World Trade Center Health Fund in 2011, and the programs for those who got sick or who later develop health problems runs through 2090.Garbarino said lawmakers are still pushing to fill vacant staff positions at federal agencies who administer the program....