(The Center Square) – Americans impacted by terrorism continue to call on Congress to ensure the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST Fund) is solvent.
“The issue before Congress isn’t partisan, it’s about honoring a promise to Americans scarred by terrorism,” Angela Mistrulli, founder of American Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism United (AVSSTU) and daughter of a 9/11 victim, told The Center Square. The fund “was created to be a lifeline, and over 22,000 American victims depend on the support Congress pledged. Congress has the chance to show through action that ‘Never Forget’ still carries meaning,” she said.
Congress created the fund in 2015 but it hasn’t been fully funded and payouts have been sporadic. Despite winning judgments in U.S. courts, many victims haven’t received compensation.
Until Congress fully funds it, an estimated 18,000 Americans “will be left to shoulder the weight of their trauma alone,” Mistrulli said.
"As the daughter of a 9/11 victim, I know firsthand that the impact of terrorism does not end when the headlines fade,” she added. “I founded AVSSTU to unite victims and families from terrorist attacks across generations and bring a stronger collective voice to Washington. Our mission is simple: pursue accountability, support victims, and ensure that America never forgets those whose lives were forever changed by terrorism."
U.S. Reps. from New York, Laura Gillen, a Democrat, and Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, filed HR 9795 to address the issue. It requires $3 billion to be transferred to the fund every year, mandatory distribution payments and a mechanism to ensure those with unpaid terrorism judgements are paid. The bill hasn’t moved out of the House Judiciary Committee.
They filed the resolution after U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Malliotakis and Mike Lawler (R-NY) attempted to strengthen the fund by introducing the American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act, HR 8419, in 2024. It went nowhere.
Those urging Congress to act include American survivors or family members of victims of the 1983 Beirut Embassy Bbombing, 1983 Marine Barracks bombing, 1984 Beirut Embassy Annex bombing, 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings, 9/11, Iraq War Gold Star families, 2016 Bastille Day, Nice, France, attack, and Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.
HR 9795 is named after two men who were killed on 9/11 while working in the north tower of the World Trade Center: Joseph Mistrulli, Angela’s father, a Windows on the World contractor, and Alan Kleinberg, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Angela Mistrulli also founded and is a national chair of 9/11 Families United, which is leading a civil lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its alleged role in 9/11. Congress established the 9/11 Commission in response to calls for accountability led by key advocates including Mindy Kleinberg, Alan Kleinberg’s widow. Working through AVSTU, she hopes to “ensure that victims’ experiences remain central to federal policy discussions and efforts to secure accountability, transparency and justice.”
They and others successfully lobbied Congress to enact the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act in 2016. It enables victims of terrorism to sue foreign states that provide support to terrorist organizations.
Getting Congress to ensure the USVSST Fund is solvent is a familiar struggle.
It took 18 years for Congress to fully fund the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). Established in 2001, it wasn’t permanently funded (through Oct. 1, 2090) until 2019.
It was named after three 9/11 heroes James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez, who lobbied Congress to authorize compensation for 9/11 victims, survivors and cleanup crew. They died before Congress acted.
NYPD officer Zadroga served more than 450 hours at Ground Zero. He contracted Black Lung Disease, suffered and died at 34. In his memory, his Barasch & McGarry attorneys have helped more than 20,000 people recover over $7 billion from the VCF.
Ray Pfiefer, a FDNY firefighter who died from cancer caused by chemicals he was exposed to at Ground Zero, “was a leading force in lobbying to extend the Zadroga Act through 2090,” The Ray Pfeifer Foundation explains.
Alvarez, a NYPD bomb squad detective and Marine Corps veteran, “spent a large part of his career fighting for the healthcare rights” for Ground Zero cleanup workers. “He spent his final years making repeated trips to Washington urging lawmakers to pass a bill replenishing the 9/11 compensation fund.” He died at age 53 “just weeks after making an emotional plea to Congress,” the Tunnel-Towers Foundation said.
Since 2001, the fund has served more than 70,000 victims and family members.
The VCF is encouraging all eligible people to register for the fund, even those who aren’t currently sick. Registration preserves the right to file a claim for those who were at three plane crash sites, including an estimated 400,000 people who were potentially exposed to toxins in lower Manhattan alone.
The advocacy groups are also calling for accountability and transparency as 9/11 related criminal and civil trials continue, The Center Square reported. “Without full transparency and candor, we can’t heal – not as family members and survivors, and not as citizens,” 911 Families United argues. “Only then can Americans have confidence that we are doing everything we can to ensure justice, and to make sure a day like 9/11 never happens again.”