WASHINGTON (WJLA/Sinclair Broadcast Group) – Comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart joined a rally in Washington, D.C. Wednesday in support of extending health care benefits for 9/11 first responders afflicted by cancer and other diseases from exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.
Stewart, who ended his run as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” last month, appeared outside the Capitol building flanked by firefighters and lawmakers from both parties who support the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act.
“Why is it incumbent upon our first responders to have to consistently push to get the benefits that are coming to them purely for their acts of valor?” Stewart told an outdoor news conference at the East Front of the Capitol.
Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act
The legislation would permanently extend health benefits and compensation for survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks and first responders who came to the scenes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania to help. It could affect 33,000 first responders and family members still suffering 14 years later.
Stewart helped pass the initial legislation in 2010 and featured first responders on his show at the time, but benefits are set to begin expiring next month.
“These illnesses are not on five-year cycles,” Stewart said. “They’re permanent illnesses causing permanent damage.”
Robert Alexander, a former New York City police officer, told Sinclair Broadcast Group, “I responded down there that day, witnessed both buildings fall,” and as a result of exposure to toxic smoke and chemicals,”I was diagnosed in November 2014 of brain cancer.”
“The war started on the streets of lower Manhattan,” Alexander said, referring to what’s been known as the war on terrorism,”I’m the first guy to stand up for our vets, but we need to be taken care of in this case. In my mind, chronologically, this would be the best way–take care of the cops and firemen and civilians that worked at the Trade Center, then take care of the vets.”
Stewart and others who arrived by bus on Capitol Hill planned visits to members of Congress and their staffs Wednesday to try to convince them to permanently renew the legislation.