The Freedom Tower

President Bush should pledge to treat Ground Zero workers who responded to 9/11, particularly, according to the New York press.
The Long Island newspaper, Newsday and the Associated Press say the President should make such a pledge in his State of the Union Address tomorrow night.
“We know the president is going to talk about homeland security,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, said on Sunday in press reports. “He’s going to talk about the war against terror. But let me tell you something he’s not probably going to say. He’s not going to say that he’s going to provide health care to the men and women who rushed in to save the lives of others.”

The advocates were angered last month when the government halted an attempt to organize health monitoring for ground zero workers spread across the country, saying the program could cost far more money than Congress has provided.

The Department of Health and Human Services canceled the effort to hire a company to create a “processing center” for medical screening of those who worked on the toxic rubble of the trade center after the 2001 terrorist attacks.