25 years after 9/11: Americans impacted by terrorism calling on Congress to act

In 2024, a bipartisan group, led by U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Mike Lawler (R-NY) introduced the American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act, HR 8419, to strengthen the USVSST Fund. It went nowhere. 

An estimated 18,000 American victims of state-sponsored terrorism could benefit from the USVSST Fund. Created in 2015, it hasn’t been fully funded and payouts have been sporadic. 

Despite winning judgments in U.S. courts, many victims have yet to recover compensation. 

Those urging Congress to act include survivors or family members of victims of state-sponsored acts of terrorism, including the 1983 Beirut Embassy bombing, 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing, 1984 Beirut Embassy Annex Bombing, 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings, 2001 Sept. 11 attacks, Iraq War Gold Star Families, 2016 Bastille Day, Nice, France, attack, and American victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.

HR 9795 is named after two men who were killed on 9/11 while working in the north tower of the World Trade Center: Joseph Mistrulli and Alan Kleinberg. Their family members have since founded advocacy groups. 

Joseph Mistrulli’s daughter, Angela Mistrulli, founded American Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism United (AVSTU) and is a national chair of 9/11 Families United. 

Kleinberg’s widow, Mindy Kleinberg, a founding member of the September 11th Advocates, was among many calling for accountability, which led to the creation of the 9/11 Commission. She continues to advocate for terrorism survivors, including through AVSTU, to “ensure that victims’ experiences remain central to federal policy discussions and efforts to secure accountability, transparency and justice.”

The 9/11 families are also calling for accountability and transparency as two 9/11 cases are ongoing – a criminal trial against 9/11 conspirators still being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a civil trial against the Saudi government by 9/11 victims’ families.

“Without full transparency and candor, we can’t heal – not as family members and survivors, and not as citizens,” 911 Families United argues. “Only then can Americans have confidence that we are doing everything we can to ensure justice, and to make sure a day like 9/11 never happens again.”

The groups successfully lobbied Congress to enact the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act in 2016. It enables victims of terrorism to sue foreign states that provide support to terrorist organizations. 

They face an uphill challenge in ensuring the USVSST Fund is solvent. 

It took 18 years for Congress to fully fund the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). Established by Congress in 2001, its funding authorizations were renewed in 2010 and permanently in 2019 to fund the VCF through Oct. 1, 2090.

The VCF bill was named after James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez, men who lobbied Congress to ensure compensation was secured but died before they saw their efforts come to fruition. They died from illnesses they contracted while performing recovery and cleanup efforts at Ground Zero. 

Zadroga, a New York City police officer, served more than 450 hours at Ground Zero. He contracted Black Lung Disease, suffered and died at age 34. His attorneys at Barasch & McGarry have helped more than 20,000 people recover over $7 billion from the VCF in an effort “to see [Zadroga’s] legacy honor as many 9/11 victims as possible,” the firm says.

Ray Pfiefer, a FDNY firefighter who died from cancer caused by chemicals he was exposed to at Ground Zero, “was a leading force in lobbying to extend the Zadroga Act through 2090,” The Ray Pfeifer Foundation explains. 

Alvarez, a NYPD bomb squad detective and Marine Corps veteran, “spent a large part of his career fighting for the healthcare rights” for Ground Zero cleanup volunteers and workers. “He spent his final years making repeated trips to Washington urging lawmakers to pass a bill replenishing the 9/11 compensation fund.” He died at age 53 “just weeks after making an emotional plea to Congress,” the Tunnel-Towers Foundation said.

Since 2001, the fund has served more than 70,000 victims and family members. 

The VCF is still encouraging all eligible people to register for the fund, including those who aren’t currently sick. Registration preserves the right to file a claim for those who were at three plane crash sites and later diagnosed with a 9/11 related illness. 

They include the New York City Exposure Zone, including all of lower Manhattan below Canal St., where an estimated 400,000 were potentially exposed to toxins, between Sept. 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002; the Pentagon plane crash site between Sept. 11 and Nov. 19, 2001; the Shanksville, Penn. plane crash site between Sept. 11 and Oct. 3, 2001.