Jon Stewart looked up at a sparse audience of lawmakers listening to the testimony of sick and injured 9/11 first responders and he was appalled.
Everyone should be.
Though Mr. Stewart made a career out of playing the news for laughs, he sat last week before a House of Representatives subcommittee, hands shaking and voice quivering, enraged.
His rage was aimed at the congressional neglect of the people who rushed toward the danger everyone else was trying to flee on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since the terrorist assault, many first responders have suffered from cancer and other ailments caused by their exposure to toxic debris at the scene of the attack.
The federal victim compensation fund provides support and covers health-care expenses for the firefighters, police and others who are suffering.
The administrator of the fund, which will stop taking claims at the end of 2020, has said it does not have sufficient funding to pay those claims. To manage, fund administrators announced they would begin awarding only partial claims.
And so, the sick and frail first responders who need that fund went to Washington, accompanied by longtime advocate Mr. Stewart, to plead their case to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Mr. Stewart could not abide the paltry attendance — just about half of the subcommittee’s 14 members were present — by representatives whose job it is to replenish the fund.
“I can’t help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to. Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress,” he said.
Less than 24 hours later, after Mr. Stewart’s rant went viral, the Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve a bill reauthorizing the fund.
That was fast.
And all it took was the outrage of a man whose celebrity and eloquent expression of indignation could break through the din of less-important chatter.
Many pundits observed that a few hours after the 9/11 first responders appeared at the poorly attended subcommittee meeting, the House of Representatives voted on the civil contempt resolution against Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn.
It isn’t just Congress that needs to adjust its focus. The nation as a whole could do with less fixation on political soap operas. It would give us all more time to notice issues that deserve our attention.
First Published: June 18, 2019, 10:30 a.m.
