“What brought comedian and activist Jon Stewart to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to shame Congress is the fact that while new victims of 9/11 are identified every day, the fund set up to help them is about out of money.

“That’s a huge problem. The area in Lower Manhattan that was destroyed nearly 18 years ago has been rebuilt, but the attacks keep inflicting hurt on the people who came to the rescue.

“Thousands of first responders and others who helped in the aftermath of the terror attacks are only just now learning how sick they are.

“The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was created in the months following the attacks and was initially active for two years, paying more than $7 billion in benefits to people who died or were injured in the immediate aftermath.

“But first responders who spent weeks at the site breathing in noxious air clouded with debris from the collapsed buildings — after New York and federal officials told them it was safe — have since found debilitating illnesses and cancers festering in their bodies.”

Read more at CNN