The 9/11 Zadroga bill is fair enough. - By John Culhane - Slate Magazine

Thoughtful observations on the Zadroga 9/11 responders bill by Widener law prof John Culhane:

Even among those harmed or killed on 9/11, the VCF created unfairness. Because recovery was in large part based on lost wages, the government paid families of Cantor, Fitzgerald employees who died much more than families of firefighters, for example. The VCF's administrator, the ubiquitous Kenneth Feinberg (who is now in charge of the BP Oil Spill Fund), once responded to a question about how he would change the fund by saying: "Pay everyone the same."

Does the new $2.5 billion in the Zadroga Act repeat the same error? No. While Coburn is right to take into account distributive justice by bringing up the deficit, the case for compensation is solid here. Remember that government officials (most notoriously then-EPA Chief Christine Whitman) assured these cleanup workers that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe. So this is a stronger case than the one made for the first set of VCF beneficiaries. Perhaps it's enough to say that, where government is the negligent actor, it is fair to make it pay like any private citizen who would be found liable.

Or fairer, anyway. The victims of Katrina and of Oklahoma City will surely continue to ask: What about us?

The 9/11 Zadroga bill is fair enough. - By John Culhane - Slate Magazine