Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in respectful but sincere opposition to the pending bill. I have no disrespect for the victims or for the namesake's sponsor and his family, but I also have a sincere regard for the United States taxpayer, who is going to have to pay for this new entitlement program. The first myth that I want to relate is the implication that we don't have an existing victims' compensation fund. That is simply not true, Mr. Speaker. Twelve days after the attack back in September of 2001, we passed Public Law 107-42, the Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. We gave 2 years, or a year and a half, for people to submit claims, and 97 percent of the eligible victims or their families filed injury or death claims by December 22, 2003. Of the 2,973 victims, 2,880 families filed claims. The average award for the families of the victims actually killed in the attack averaged $2 million per victim while 70 people chose to file lawsuits and 23 eligible families took no action. In addition to death claims, 2,680 injury claims have been filed and processed. The average award for injured victims is nearly $400,000 per injury. Overall, this fund has paid out over $7 billion in the last 9 years. We also passed the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act back in 2001 so that the families of the victims would not be subject to Federal income taxes for the year of the attack and also for the previous year to the attack. We currently have an existing 9/11 benefit program.…”