Republicans Who Voted Against 9/11 Victims Fund Post Tributes

Several Republican politicians who voted against legislation to establish a health care fund for victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center posted tributes to social media on the attack’s 22nd anniversary on Monday.

Congress in 2010 passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which established the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) and included measures allowing the government to provide medical monitoring and treatment for survivors of the attack, as well as the police, firefighters and health care workers who responded to Ground Zero. The VCF provided economic relief to those affected.

The bill ultimately passed the House of Representatives by a 268-160 vote, with 251 Democrats and 17 Republicans voting in its favor, with 160 Republicans and three Democrats voting against it. Many Republicans at the time, while voicing support for the 9/11 survivors and first responders, expressed concerns about the price tag of the bill, prompting them to reject it.

Their votes against this bill continue to face scrutiny more than a decade later, as many of these lawmakers remain in Congress. Twenty-nine remain in the House of Representatives, nine in the Senate and one has served as vice president.

Many of these lawmakers took to social media to post tributes to September 11 victims, survivors and first responders, despite voting against the Zadroga Act.

“Never Forget the Americans, police officers, and firefighters who lost their lives in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. And pray for the families of those who gave it all to protect our freedoms at home and abroad,” Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Jordan, like many of the Republicans who initially voted against the bill, has since voted to reauthorize the VCF in 2019.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served in Congress and as the governor of Indiana prior to 2016, also voted against the bill.

“Today, Americans will again pause to remember the 2,977 lost on 9/11 and their Families. Their memory will live on in the hearts of the American people forever and We Will #NeverForget or fail to Honor the Heroes forged that day and every day since defending our Nation,” he wrote on Monday.

Newsweek reached out to Pence and Jordan’s spokespeople for comment via email on Monday.

The VCF, however, was not made permanent in the 2010 legislation. Under that bill, the fund needed to be renewed every five years and Congress did so in 2015 while also expanding the World Trade Center Health Program.

Congress again did so in 2019, essentially making the fund permanent. Former President Donald Trump on July 29, 2019, signed The Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act. This bill extended the fund through 2090, essentially making it permanent.

Only 10 members of the House and two senators, all Republicans, voted against its expansion in 2019.