I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 565
To extend the time for filing certain claims under the September 11th Victim 
Compensation Fund of 2001, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 2, 2005
Mrs. MALONEY (for herself, Mr. NADLER, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. 
OWENS, Mrs. MCCARTHY, and Mr. SERRANO) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To extend the time for filing certain claims under the Sep-
tember 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, and 
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Victim Compensation 
Fund Extension Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The September 11th Victim Compensation 
Fund of 2001 was established to provide compensa-
tion to individuals (or relatives of deceased individ-
uals) who were physically injured or killed as a re-
sult of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of Sep-
tember 11, 2001. 
(2) The deadline for filing claims for compensa-
tion under the Victim Compensation Fund was De-
cember 22, 2003. 
(3) Some individuals did not know they were el-
igible to file claims for compensation or did not 
know they had suffered physical harm as a result of 
the terrorist-related aircraft crashes until after the 
December 22, 2003, deadline. 
SEC. 3. DEADLINE EXTENSION FOR CERTAIN CLAIMS 
UNDER SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSA-
TION FUND OF 2001. 
Section 405(a)(3) of the Air Transportation Safety 
and System Stabilization Act (49 U.S.C. 40101 note) is 
amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 
subparagraph (B), no claim may be filed under 
paragraph (1) after December 22, 2003. 
‘‘(B) EXCEPTIONS.—A claim may be filed 
under paragraph (1)—
‘‘(i) during the 3-year period after the 
date of the enactment of this subpara-
graph, if the Special Master determines 
that the claimant—
‘‘(I) did not know that the claim-
ant had suffered physical harm as a 
result of the terrorist-related aircraft 
crashes of September 11, 2001, until 
after December 22, 2003, and before 
the date of the enactment of this sub-
paragraph; or 
‘‘(II) did not for any reason 
other than as described in subclause 
(I) know that the claimant was eligi-
ble to file a claim under paragraph 
(1) until after December 22, 2003; 
and 
‘‘(ii) during the 3-year period after 
the date that the claimant first knew that 
the claimant had suffered physical harm as 
a result of the terrorist-related aircraft 
crashes of September 11, 2001, if the Spe-
cial Master determines that the claimant 
did not know that the claimant had suf-
fered physical harm as a result of the
crashes until a date that is on or after the 
date of the enactment of this subpara-
graph.’’. 
SEC. 4. IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH DEFINED. 
Section 402 of the Air Transportation Safety and 
System Stabilization Act (49 U.S.C. 40101 note) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(9) 
IMMEDIATE
AFTERMATH.—In 
section 
405(c)(2)(A)(i), the term ‘immediate aftermath’ 
means any period of time after the terrorist-related 
aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001, as deter-
mined by the Special Master, that was sufficiently 
close in time to the crashes that there was a demon-
strable risk to the claimant of physical harm result-
ing from the crashes.’’.
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