WASHINGTON (AP) - The New York Police Department commissioner - joined by police and firefighters - wants Congress to keep dollars flowing to a health program for first responders and others who got sick while working in the rubble of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Commissioner William Bratton says it's ironic that even as the House and Senate hold hearings on the terrorist threat confronting the United States, the country still hasn't paid its debt to the 9/11 first responders. Bratton says the situation "just defies logic."
The Zadroga Act, named after a responder who died after working at Ground Zero, became law in 2010. But the health benefits expired this fall.
