A day after undergoing chemotherapy, 9/11 first responder Robert Digiovanni stood angrily outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s office, railing about politics interfering with life-or-death issues.
Digiovanni, who has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, had been lobbying for legislation to extend expired health care benefits for himself and others who were exposed to toxic dust after the 2001 attacks in New York. But the extension wasn’t included in a massive transportation bill released this week, as some expected, and Digiovanni and his fellow firefighters blamed the Republican leader.
“I am very scared, very nervous,” Digiovanni said Wednesday as he and others protested. “Here we are, all dying, and they’re playing politics.”
The health care fund provides aid to first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center after the attacks, worked there for weeks and now suffer from illnesses like pulmonary disease and cancer. The program expired earlier this year, and federal officials say it will face challenges by February and have to start shutting down by next summer if the money doesn’t come.