24 years ago today, the actions of a few changed our nation forever when 2,977 people were killed in terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a plane that crashed in Shanksville, PA. For those who experienced it, the day is etched into our memories, but the aftermath is still unfolding for so many.

Those who ran toward the danger or lived near and around Ground Zero have been left to battle with related illnesses and bureaucracy.

At the center of the fight for their care is John Feal, a 9/11 responder turned advocate who's urging Congress to fully fund the World Trade Center health program before it runs out of time.

He joins me now.

John, thank you so much for coming on the show.

I want to ask you, because yourself and other advocates, you have been urging Congress in just this week, urged Congress to make some reforms to the health program.

What are you asking them to do?

Yeah, well, one, thank you for having me, Brianna.

You know, we were in D.C. for a couple days this week, and it was our ninth trip to D.C. You know, we're fighting two fights.

One, we're trying to get legislation passed, H.R.

1410, which is to fund the World Trade Center health program for a correction that was made in 2015.

This is the third year that we've been trying to do it.

We're close, and I think we're going to get something done by the end of the year.

Because if we don't, a lot of people are going to suffer.

But we're also trying to fix the mistakes that Secretary Kennedy has placed upon the World Trade Center Health Program and NIOSH who administrates the World Trade Center Health Program.

Those cuts that were made in February have still not been fixed.

There's no communication between the World Trade Center Health Program and their Centers of Excellence with the advocates.

The steering committee hasn't met in six months.

The registration, the process to get into the program, the enrollment, and to get certified with your illnesses has been delayed because under the original bill in 2010, it calls for 113 people to work at NIOSH, for the World Trade Center Health Program.

There's only 80 people there.

They're on the staff.

This is a program that was working.

It's a mandatory program.

It's doing its job.

And they're intentionally and maliciously hurting people with their reckless actions.

What does that look like on the ground?

I mean, because you work with families all the time.

What type of services are they either being denied from, not getting, or having delayed?

Yeah, so the enrollment process usually takes about three or four months to get into the World Trade Center Help Program.

Then you would get a physical.

And when your physical comes back, any illnesses that the federal government said, yes, 9/11 and the aftermath that caused that, it would get certified.

Instead of three or four months and then another three or four months, this is now taking over a year.

This is unacceptable.

There are people that are sick and dying.

There's 142,000 people in the World Trade Center Health Program.

48,400-plus have a certified 9/11-related cancer.

More than one in three now have a 9/11-related cancer.

And that is staggering.

That is -- that's not normal.

And it's only going to get worse because of the age of these men and women now, uniform and non-uniform, or even those who lived or worked or went to school in lower Manhattan.

You know, there were 13 schools in lower Manhattan that are within the geographic zone that Congress mapped out, which is considered the toxic exposure area.

There were kids on 9/11, 4, 5, 6, 10, 16 years old.

Now they're adults.

And they're going to get sick with cancer, and they're going to die unless we fix this.

I know yourself, Congressman Frank Pallone here in New Jersey, are also concerned about the fact that there are illnesses.

Here we are, as you point out, this was passed in 2010, so here we are on the 24th anniversary, but 15 years later, all of the challenges that you have faced in getting to this point, and there are still illnesses that aren't recognized.

There are illnesses that people are coming down with that still are not on that list.

What has that meant?

Yeah, so, you know, let's go back to December of last year, the Correction Act of 2024, because now it's the Correction Act of 2025.

All four leaders in the House and the Senate agreed upon a bill.

We had a bill done, and then Elon Musk killed it, and then Speaker Johnson, you know, followed up with it and killed it, told Garabino and Gillibrand, and we're right back at it again.

But in March, we were supposed to make an announcement that autoimmune and heart cardiac would be added to the bill.

And now that's been taken off the table.

And it will take at least the earliest another year for that to come up.

But with these cuts, there's no research being done, there's no peer reviews being done, and the steering committee can't meet and talk, and there's no future for the 9/11 community without the steering committee and the World Trade Center Health Program being able to communicate with everybody in the 9/11 community.

So they have stymied us.

They've placed obstacles and hurdles in front of us, but we seem to be getting through them slowly.

We left D.C. this week with 83 co-sponsors.

And I can guarantee today, on a day of reflection, on a day where every elected official is going to come out and say, "Never forget the heroes of 9/11."

They're either going to be hypocrites because they don't support the bill, or they're going to do the right thing and co-sponsor the bill.

And I think today will be over 100 co-sponsors.

And I think by the end of the year, because I'm an optimistic person, that we're going to get a bill passed and attached to something, and we're going to look back at all of this and say, you know what, it was temporary, it was painful, but we got through it.

And I'm not surprised by anything Congress does.

I'm disappointed.

We got to stop the labeling, stop being a Democrat, stop being a Republican, stop being an American, just be a human being.

And the true spirit of the human being is to help those less fortunate.

And that's what we do.

And we're challenging the humanity in Congress to do the right thing.

When you consider, John, that now just the FDNY alone, 400 members have died of 9/11 illnesses, that's more than were killed on that day, 343.

How does that concern you in terms of what's ahead with what we're going to need to grapple with to make sure that these folks are getting the care they rightly deserve?

Yeah, well, one, you know, the FDNY Screening Program has its own center of excellence.

But they fall under the World Trade Center Health Program.

And this is not just for cops and firefighters.

It's for those who lived and worked or went to school in Lower Manhattan.

It's for the trades.

It's for the unions.

And these men and women need this lifeline to continue until their very last day.

We lose somebody on average once a day.

This Saturday, and two days from now, on my park on Long Island, we're writing 362 names that died in the calendar year from a 9/11-related illness.

362 names.

Their names will be read out loud, followed by the ringing of the bell and a flyover.

And this is the most painful day of the year for me.

And my heart bleeds, and my soul cries, because Congress is sitting on their hands.

You know, over the years, 2010, 2015, 2019, we always knew our opposition.

There was always somebody who got in our way, and then we blasted them.

Now we're fighting the boogeyman.

Nobody has told us no.

Nobody said they oppose us.

They just keep prolonging it because of politics and poor leadership and reckless ideologies.

And we're here to say we're not going to take it.

And while today is a day of reflection, we try not to advocate and pick fights and, you know, attack Congress.

Today is the perfect day to attack Congress because they're going to come out and say, never forget.

Hypocrisy is repulsive.

If they're not going to support a bill that saves lives for those who they said never forget about, it makes no sense.

It's sad.

John Feale, thank you for your advocacy.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me and God bless this great country.

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