Legislation Extends Task Force for an Additional Five Years

Diane J. Savino

September 10, 2010

Crime

(Queens, N.Y.) With the ninth anniversary of the WTC terrorist attacks to be commemorated later this week, Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., a member of the Senate’s Committee on Civil Service and Pensions, reports that Governor David Paterson has signed a bill out of that committee sponsored by Senator Diane J. Savino (S7456), improving the September 11th Workers’ Protection Task Force, allowing the Task Force to continue to provide vital assistance to the thousands of heroes of the September 11 tragedy.
Included in the legislation are measures to extend the task force for another five years, from 6/10/2010 to 6/10/2015 and to expand the composition of the Task Force to 20 members, including the medical director of the Mount Sinai Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The September 11th Workers’ Protection Task Force has played a central role in identifying additional issues that have arisen from the rescue, recovery and clean-up of the former World Trade Center site. While significant progress has been made, the work of the Task Force is not complete.

Senator Diane J. Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said, “The Task Force has done very valuable work over the past five years, addressing the immediate impact on the workers who responded to the WTC attack, but it is clear that the work is not done. Now, we are starting to see the long-term adverse effects of the exposure that many heroic first responders are now presented with. This is why the work of the Task Force needs to continue.”