Congress for 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund renewal
Channel: Important Information
Date: 2019-06-11

WASHINGTON — The way some people have “love” and “hate” tattooed across their knuckles, Luis Alvarez has the NYPD radio code for a suspicious package — 10-44 — etched on his fists from his days on the bomb squad.

He's not someone who was reluctant to do the jobs most others couldn't or wouldn't.

He didn't really want to be testifying to Congress Tuesday, a day before his 69th round of chemo for 9/11-linked cancer, but he came anyway to tell the representatives to their faces it's their fault that he has to be there.
"Tell you the truth, no. But it's something I have to do," Alvarez said Monday night, after going over his prepared testimony for Tuesday's Judiciary Committee hearing on renewing the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

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He's testifying with other responders, the comedian and filmmaker Jon Stewart and medical professionals. It's his job to remind Congress that he, and dozens of other responders in Washington with him, are only there because in the more than 17 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, lawmakers have not done what it takes to address the tragedy and devastation wrought on by those attack.

In his prepared testimony, Alvarez tells members of the committee, "I am here because of YOU," with all caps on the "you."

This is the third time since 2010 that lawmakers are taking up 9/11 legislation. That first time, some worried about fraud and abuse, and cut proposed funding for health and compensation programs to a level that would only last five years. And it barely passed just before Christmas.

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In 2015, Congress made treatment for 9/11 responders essentially permanent, for 75 years, but they again scrimped on the Victim Compensation Fund, passing a bit more than $7 billion meant to last through 2020. It's already running out, as thousands of people like Louis Alvarez have turned up with 9/11-linked cancer.

Alvarez's cancer is tied to the time he spent searching roof tops for victims soon after the towers fell, and on the "bucket brigade" trying to salvage the remains of his NYPD and FDNY brethren.

He said didn’t want to be there, either, but he was and he did what he needed to do. He was a narcotics cop out of Queens at the time, and his hands weren’t adorned with bomb squad codes. “Love” and “hate” would have worked as well then, as now.

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Testifying to members of Congress may not be what Alvarez would like, but he hopes confronting them will help other responders and families who face the actuarial certainty of suffering cancer as he has. That matters a great deal to him.

"I love to do this. I really do," Alvarez said. "It helps other guys. There are guys out there who, I don't want to say 'clueless,' but really don't know what's going on. They don't get it. They don't get it until they get sick."

He made a similar trip in February, minus the cameras, to talk to lawmakers in person. He and dozens of other responders have made repeated trips to Washington, interrupting their lives and medical treatment, and convincing more than 300 members of the House to support this round of 9/11 legislation.

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It left him exhausted and his wife upset. But he said he sees doing it again as both a message to his children and a legacy to fellow responders.

"I want my kids to know that dad did everything he could to help other police officers get though this," Alvarez said.

Tuesday's testimony is meant to spur on a committee vote on Wednesday to advance the bill to the full House, with hopes that it passes there not too long after. With overwhelming support in the House, the focus will shift to the Senate, where progress has been slower.

So he'll tell Congress that it should have acted soon, and that it can at least make amends by acting now. After he's done, he's heading back home to take care of the job of staying alive.

“Then I gotta rush back home to chemo on Wednesday,” he said.