page_title: Jon Stewart
section_title: 9/11 First Responders Bill
hierarchical_section_title: Jon Stewart / Advocacy / 9/11 First Responders Bill
caption_attribution_description: 911Presser_092519 (37 of 62)
context_page_description: Jon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. He hosted The Daily Show, a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015.
  Stewart started as a stand-up comedian but branched into television as host of Short Attention Span Theater for Comedy Central. He went on to host The Jon Stewart Show and then You Wrote It, You Watch It, both on MTV. Stewart also has appeared in several films, such as Big Daddy and Death to Smoochy, but did few cinematic projects after becoming host of The Daily Show in 1999. He also was a writer and co-executive producer of the show. After Stewart joined, The Daily Show steadily gained popularity and critical acclaim, and during his tenure, it won 22 Primetime Emmy Awards, 2 Grammy Awards and also was nominated for news and journalism awards. Stewart hosted the 78th and 80th Academy Awards. He is the co-author of America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, which was one of the best-selling books in the U.S. in 2004, and Earth: A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race, released in 2010.
context_section_description: Over the years Stewart sometimes used The Daily Show to argue for causes such as the treatment of veterans and 9/11 first responders. He is credited with breaking a Senate deadlock over a bill to provide health care and benefits for 9/11 emergency workers; the bill passed three days after he featured a group of 9/11 responders on the show. In March 2009, he criticized a White House proposal to remove veterans from Veterans Administration rolls if they had private health insurance; the White House dropped the plan the next day. In 2010, Stewart held an interview with a panel of four of the 9/11 first responders Kenny Specht with the FDNY, Chris Bowman NYPD, Ken George DOT, and Kevin Denlin, Operating Engineer of Heavy Equipment, who discussed their health problems with Stewart. In 2015 four months after leaving The Daily Show he returned to reunite the four, with Specht as the only panelist healthy enough to attend. Devlin is deceased and the two other panelists, Bowman and George, were too ill to make it to the show.
  In February and June 2019, he again went to Congress to oppose the $7.375 billion limit in pay-outs to 9/11 responders through December 2020 and to lobby for permanent funding for the Victims Compensation Fund past December 2020, delivering a tearful testimony.
  "Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak to no one. Shameful. It’s an embarrassment to the country and it’s a stain on this institution. And you should be ashamed of yourselves for those that aren’t here. But you won’t be because accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber...And I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic. But I’m angry, and you should be too, and they’re all angry as well and they have every justification to be that way. There is not a person here, there is not an empty chair on that stage that didn’t tweet out “Never Forget the heroes of 9/11. Never forget their bravery. Never forget what they did, what they gave to this country.” Well, here they are. And where are they? And it would be one thing if their callous indifference and rank hypocrisy were benign, but it’s not. Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity: time. It’s the one thing they’re running out of".
  Stewart continued to be a vocal advocate appearing on late night shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and news programs such as Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, and The Fox Report with Shepherd Smith. On July 12, 2019 the bill approved the House overwhelmingly 402-12. The bill came to the senate floor where it passed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund through 2092, virtually funding health care for 9/11 victims and first responders for life. The vote was 97-2 with Republican Senators Rand Paul - KY and Mike Lee - UT opposing. When hearing that the bill had been passed Stewart responded by saying, "It has been the honor of my life working with the 9/11 first responders...these families deserve better...and I will follow you wherever your next adventure shall be".
caption: Stewart speaking at a press conference for the 9/11 first responders in 2019
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark IV", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 7.0 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2019:02:25 18:13:43", "Image ExifOffset": "224", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "878", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15298", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2000", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "2000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:02:25 16:29:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:02:25 16:29:40", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "24", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "61166933/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "61166933/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "232057003411", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "5565003302"}