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WASHINGTON -- As of Thursday morning, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) was among just 34 senators who had not signed on as a sponsor of a new 9/11 health and compensation bill.
But by nighttime that had changed, and the Ohio Republican and former Bush administration budget director became the 67th senator to back a bill that would make permanent the health and compensation program for 9/11 responders, which began to expire this year.
All it took was a visit from a firefighter dying from 9/11-linked cancer, a dozen other responders, and Jon Stewart.
"His chief of staff just called me and said he was going on the bill," said John Feal, the founder of the FealGood Foundation advocacy group, calling from his car on the way home from a day lobbying lawmakers with the former host of The Daily Show.
Portman's conversion didn't exactly come easy.
Responders visited his office on Wednesday and felt like they were not treated very well. They tried again Thursday with Stewart and did better, visiting with Portman's chief of staff.
www.huffingtonpost.com...
Multiple sources told The Huffington Post he wanted to use the 9/11 provisions as leverage to get other items added to the bill, including a measure to lift the U.S. ban on oil exports.
www.huffingtonpost.com...
originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: Spider879
It's disgusting isn't it? Unfortunately that's become the nature of politics in this country. It's the same thing with the GOP pounding their chests wanting America to lead and send ground troops into the middles east. A majority of them are not putting their son's or daughter's into harms way. It's easy to talk tough when you're not on the receiving end.
It's the same thing when politicians want to ignore the deficiency of our health care system and cutting popular programs that help the poor and the elderly. As long as they're pensions, benefits and salaries are not included in proposed bills that cut citizen programs, they'll continue to vote for these bills that don't directly affect them.
Our representatives are so far removed from the average American citizen, it's the reason why they no longer represent the will of the people.
eterans are twice as likely as other Americans to become chronically homeless.2
Veterans represent 11% of the adult civilian population, but 26% of the homeless population, according to the Homeless Research Institute (2007).
Veterans are more at risk of becoming homeless than non-veterans
The number of homeless Vietnam-era veterans, male and female, is greater than the number of soldiers who died during the war.1
Primary causes of homelessness among veterans are:
Lack of income due to limited education and lack of transferable skills from military to civilian life (especially true of younger veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan)
Combat-related physical health issues and disabilities
Combat-related mental health issues and disabilities
Substance abuse problems that interfere with job retention
Weak social networks due to problems adjusting to civilian life
Lack of services
www.veteransinc.org...