Justice Department gives monetary awards to 9/11 first responders

By Pete Kasperowicz - 01/29/13 06:14 PM ET

The Justice Department said Tuesday it is awarding 15 first responders with anywhere from $10,000 to $1.5 million each for damages they suffered in the 9/11 attacks in New York more than 11 years ago.

The awards are the first to be made under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which President Obama signed into law two years ago. That law created a $2.8 billion victims compensation fund (VCF) that is meant to help people suffering various health conditions or economic losses as a result of the attacks.

Justice had not released full details on the awards, but other press reports said 14 of the 15 awardees are firefighters, and all worked in or around Ground Zero. The VCF has informed them of their award, and informed a total of 100 claimants that they are eligible for an award — several thousand are thought to have applied.

Under the law, $800 million can be released over the first five years, and the remaining $2 billion becomes available in the last year of the program in 2017.

Several New York congressmen praised Justice's initial wave of awards.

"These first awards begin fulfilling the promise made by the Zadroga Act: that responders, survivors and workers near Ground Zero had measurable economic harm occur as a result of the 9/11 attacks," Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) said in a joint release.

"This is truly great news for those who have lost so much and waited so long for help. These victims and their families can now rest a little bit easier, knowing that their claims have been validated."

Maloney and Nadler were scheduled to hold a briefing after a meeting designed to help people apply for compensation under the VCF.