Donald Trump Didn’t Invite Democrat Author Of 9/11 Bill To White House Signing Ceremony
Though he signed it into law Monday, President Donald Trump didn’t extend an invitation to the lead author of the bill that would extend a compensation fund for police, firefighters and other first responders who survived the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, The Daily Beast reported Monday.
The lead author of the bill, Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, was not present when the president signed the bill on Monday at the White House, and according to The Daily Beast, the congresswoman’s office told the publication that she was not invited by the president.
According to the report, the only Democrats invited to watch the president sign the bill were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a candidate in the Democratic race for president. Though the two were invited at 12:25 a.m. on Saturday, per The Daily Beast.
The president signed the bill on Monday that ensures funding will essentially never run out for victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, per NBC News. Funding for the program was quickly running out, and administrators of the program had cut payments to victims by 70 percent due to the dwindling funds.
With the signing of the bill into law, the program to support the surviving first responders of 9/11 will be funded through 2092, per NBC News.
The president mentioned several first responders by name, including police detective Luis Alvarez, who testified before Congress last month about the importance of the bill. Alvarez died following his testimony after a battle with cancer he said was caused by the three months he spent working at Ground Zero following the terror attacks, per USA Today. The bill signed Monday was named after Alvarez.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who was the lead sponsor on the 9/11 responders bill, was not invited to Trump’s signing ceremony, her office tells me. https://t.co/lHQh1db0Ss
— Sam Stein (@samstein) July 29, 2019
Trump, who is from New York City, noted that he was also present at Ground Zero following the 2001 attacks.
“I was down there also,” the president said. “But I’m not considering myself a first responder.”
The signing comes after a testimony in front of Congress from survivors of the 9/11 attacks.
According to The Daily Beast, Trump signed the bill in front of eight members of Congress – all Republicans. Maloney’s co-author of the bill, Rep. Peter King of New York, was present at the bill’s signing on Monday.
As Roll Call noted, the bill easily passed a House vote earlier in the month, but had a more difficult time in the Senate as some senators worried about the bill’s price tag, which essentially allows unlimited funding for victims of 9/11. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill will cost some $10.2 billion over the next decade, and billions more in the decades that follow.
