Pataki Signs Health Coverage Bill for First Responders

New York, NY —

Governor George Pataki returned to the site of the World Trade Center to sign three pieces of landmark legislation that will make it easier for ground zero workers to get health care coverage and disability pay.

REPORTER: The new laws for ailing World Trade Center first responders waives the two year deadline for worker comp. claims, re-defines their death benefits as line of duty for their survivors, and permits them to get additional health and pension benefits if they get ill after they retire.

Governor Pataki dismissed concerns expressed by Mayor Bloomberg about the potential cost to the City.

BLOOMBERG: You know today the City, the state, the nation's economy are doing well. Part of the reason it is doing so well is that we got back on our feet so quickly because we were inspired by the action of those heroes.

REPORTER: Pataki specifically invoked the memory the late NYPD Detective James Zadroga who died earlier this year from what a Coroner concluded was respiratory disease related to his time at Ground Zero. Pataki said some of the reforms would also apply to private sector workers on duty at Ground Zero.