Jon Stewart’s not joking: McConnell needs to move on the 9/11 fund

Jon Stewart is coming through once more for World Trade Center heroes and victims. Keep it up.

He joined our calls in 2010, pushing Congress to create the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and a health program. He was with us again in 2015, urging lawmakers to extend the fund and guarantee lifetime medical coverage. Now he’s back, fighting to make the fund permanent as legitimate claims grow and the Department of Justice is having to sharply cut deserving victims’ payouts.

Most importantly, Stewart has engaged with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s words are heartening: “We have never failed to address this issue.” “We will take care of the 9/11 victims compensation fund.” “There’s no way we won’t address this problem appropriately. We have in the past. We will again in the future.”

With a new Mount Sinai study showing a direct link between WTC responders’ exposure to the toxic dust and prostate cancer, the future is here. Bipartisan House sponsorship has climbed more than 100 above the 218 majority; the bill cleared the 41-member Judiciary Committee without objection.

Backers run from the oldest and longest serving member, Don Young, to the youngest freshmen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republicans Dan Crenshaw, Anthony Gonzalez and William Timmons. AOC and they don’t agree on much, but here they stand as one.

A half dozen more Senate Republicans stepped up in the last week: John Hoeven, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan, Deb Fischer, Joni Ernst and Steve Daines. Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman were there before and are needed again. McConnell knows what he must do.

— New York Daily News