Rewarding one's heroes

In trying to rescue others in the aftermath of 9/11, many people may have exposed themselves to harmful substances. Originally, the U.S. planned to monitor that exposure - but according to the Daily News, that monitoring has amounted to nothing:

Programs were developed to check on the health of every other group that rushed to Ground Zero during and after the Sept. 11 attacks, primarily the World Trade Center Medical Screening Program run by the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Officials involved told The News the feds barred their workers from that program because they were setting up their own.

Unfortunately, that program vanished during the bureaucratic shuffle creating the Department of Homeland Security.

After trying for months to find out what happened, Manhattan Rep. Carolyn Maloney's office was able to uncover only that a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services got $3.7 million for the work. But it started and stopped in 2003, seeing fewer than 600 people.

Yet another indication that when it comes to protecting and helping the people who actually made sacrifices in the wake of 9/11, Bushco has done nothing but ignore the problem. For shame.

(Via Suburban Guerrilla.)