House Committee votes to take back unspent 9/11 funds

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress made another move late Thursday night to take back some $125 million in unspent Sept. 11 aid to New York. New York lawmakers sought to persuade the House Appropriations Committee to reconsider, but the panel rejected an amendment offered by Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., that would have let the state keep the $125 million to treat ground zero workers who develop health problems in the future. The $125 million was first given to the New York state workers compensation board after Sept. 11, 2001, to help pay administrative costs of handling claims from construction and recovery workers. The committee voted 35-28 against Walsh's amendment, but they did decide to let New York keep a separate piece of $44 million in workers compensation funding. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said this month that the $44 million should be returned because the state did not use the money as specified by Congress, even though it was directed to Sept. 11 victims or their survivors. Arguing to hold onto the $125 million, Walsh said ground zero workers are likely to develop ailments in years to come from exposure to toxic clouds of dust emanating from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. "We know that there are issues that will continue to fester in the chests and the lungs and the hearts and the bodies of the men and women who worked on that pile," said Walsh. Opponents to Walsh's amendment argued that New York had shown no indication in the last two years it would actually use the $125 million. "I don't understand why they are sitting on the money if they've got the money," said Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio.