Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is promising to include benefits for 9/11 first responders in the next government spending bill, a measure aggressively pushed by comedian Jon Stewart.
McConnell said in an interview with Politico on Friday that the next must-pass spending bill will include benefits for first responders, after the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act expired on Oct. 1.
“Everybody’s for it. It’s going to be included,” he said.
{mosads}The bill will be tied up in the current budget negotiations over the next spending bill. Congress passed a short-term bill on Friday to keep the government open through Wednesday.
Stewart has drawn attention to the legislation for first responders in a series of media appearances and Capitol Hill demonstrations.
He singled out McConnell in an appearance on “The Daily Show” on Monday, accusing the Kentucky lawmaker of caring about little “other than politics.”
The comedian also made a pitch for the first responders on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” impersonating Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump in order to get the media’s attention.
“These 9/11 first responders, let me tell you something, these 9/11 first responders are the most top-notch, first-class, diamond-encrusted heroes American can produce,” Stewart said as “Trump.” “I will build a wall around politics, and I will make politics pay for it.”
New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand brought New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to the Senate on Thursday to discuss the plight of the first responders.
Proponents of the legislation say 33,000 first responders and 9/11 victims have medical conditions as a result of the terrorist attacks.