Evening Edition: The 'Victim Compensation Fund' Continues to Help Those Affected by 9/11

0:00I'm Tyrus. I'm Kayleigh McEnany. I'm Rebair and this is The Fox News rundown. Wednesday, September 9, 2026. I'm Tanya J. Powers. Never forget was a rally in cry for people across the U.S. in the months and years after the terror attacks of 9-11. Now, 25 years later, a group of people is working to make sure those who are dealing with 9-11-related illnesses are not forgotten. We are engaged in activities that let people know that we didn't just crumble and fall after those attacks, that we were in fact America's strong, but it's persisted. So for me, for my staff, it is a mission-driven job. This is The Fox News rundown, Evening Edition. Two and a half decades after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, people are still coming forward with 9-11-related illnesses.

1:03All this week, right here on The Fox News rundown, Evening Edition, we will look back at those who were impacted by 9-11 and those who were inspired by that awful event in America's history to help others and honor those who were lost. After more than two decades, the annual ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City will get a new addition. A seventh moment of silence will be held this year at the conclusion of the reading of the almost 3,000 names of those who died on 9-11 and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. That extra moment of silence will honor the more than 9,000 people who have died from 9-11-related illnesses. We are an organization created by Congress. There was an original VCF-1, which I can tell you about, but right now we call what were the VCF-2. Melissa Terkel is the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. September 11th, the Victim Compensation Fund is here to pay compensation to people who have become ill as a result of exposure to toxins at one of the three terrorist crash

2:08sites on September 11th, or who worked on removal of the debris or rebuilding at any of those three sites and debris removal as well. So, the VCF now, or in VCF-2, began in 2011. Let me find out first how many people have enrolled in the Victim Compensation Fund during this entire 25 years since 9-11. So, yeah, those are good questions. So, we have two separate things we talk about. The first is registered. So, the first thing we ask people to do is to register for the VCF. They don't have to be sick. It guarantees they're right in the future to be able to apply for compensation. Let me tell you about VCF-1. First, I have some statistics here. So, that I'm accurate, if you don't mind. So, VCF-1 was created on September 22nd, 2001.

3:14So, really shortly after the terrorist attacks, under a statute, probably want to know all these words, but Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act. And the purpose was to be able to provide compensation to the people who died, or became highly injured on those data close to. So, on November 22nd, 2001, the Victim Compensation Fund was placed within the Civil Division at the Department of Justice. And in November 26th of that same year, the first special master was appointed and that was Kenneth Feinberg. And as of November 1st, 2004, when the Victim Compensation Fund, number one closed, it had paid 97% of the families of the deceased victims, who otherwise might have pursued lawsuits for years, they received compensation through the fund. That included victims on the planes and at all three crash sites in total.

4:15VCF-1 paid out over $7.49 billion to families of the 2880 people killed on September 11th attacks and to 2006, 180 individuals who were injured in the attacks or in the rescue efforts conducted shortly thereafter. So, that is what VCF-1 did. There was no VCF between 2004 and when VCF-1 closed, and 2011, when VCF-2 opened, and VCF-2 opened and began in 2011 after advocacy that was related to illnesses that folks had from the toxins related at all three of those sites. And let me give you those numbers. Since 2011, we've awarded over $18.56 billion to over 77,000

5:20and that's since reopening in October of 2011. Those are astounding numbers. That is a lot of people that are affected by this, as you mentioned in both of those groups. First of all, let me ask, where does the funding come from for this? So, this funding comes from taxpayer dollars. This is money that is allocated by Congress. In 2019, the VCF was made what we call permanent. So, we are open until 2019 to take the last claim with a shuttering in 2092. And we have as much funding as is needed to pay every eligible claim. I think the thing that when I first learned I was going to get to talk to you about this, aside from the numbers themselves, which are just staggering, my biggest question was this. It's been almost 25 years. Are there still people coming forward with new conditions?

6:27And if so, what are they? There are people still coming forward who are ill. The array of illnesses are pretty substantial. At first, in the beginning, what was sort of seen and what people saw besides the physical injuries that they suffered were what they call erodigestive types of illnesses. It's really expanded. So, for example, the who says that an illness is September 11th related is the World Trade Center Health Program, which runs out of the CDC. And they determine what the illnesses are related to September 11th or not. So, across then, for example, we've seen a big increase in the number of people of cancer. And now, all cancers are included in what could potentially be September 11th related. And we rely on the health program. They provide treatment to folks who have become ill,

7:32as well as they certify the illnesses that are related. And we rely on those for making those determinations. And you had asked sort of about, as this is going on, I just wanted to make sure to share with you the number of new claims that we are receiving. The number of new claims that we're receiving each month has gone up. And actually, just as of August 31st, in August alone, we received 860 new claims. We also get amendments, by the way. And that is compared to the 789 new claims we received in July. For 2025, we average 872 new claims per month. So, it is increasing. And that is for people, and across the board, and I think this is important to share, that's for people who have become ill, people who were ill and recovered, if it can be 911 related and they're eligible, they can also receive compensation. And people who have passed away as a result, they're not 11 illness,

8:36can also receive compensation through their personal representative if they bring a claim. I know a lot of people, you know, they hear about the VCF and they are in mind immediately goes to the first responders and the volunteers and the people who were there dealing with the debris, the Department of Sanitation workers that were just had delved into this for weeks and weeks afterwards. But we're also talking about the people who worked in the area, people who lived in that area, and when I say area, I'm talking mainly about Lower Manhattan. Obviously, the Pentagon and Shanksville, those are also included in the VCF. But there's, I think a lot of people don't realize there were schools in that area. Some of these people were students at the time, little kids, right? That's correct. So if we differentiate some important, and I think you did well in describing Atonia, the difference between the sites. So let's talk about New York. In New York, our, what we call, New York City Exposure Zone, is the entire area of Manhattan's south of Canal Street from

9:40east to west and down to the tip of Manhattan. And one of the things that maybe younger people may not know, or folks who perhaps were not in New York didn't know, but there was a call for America to be strong after this amazing response by our country and others to respond and to help everyone as a result of what the attack had been on the United States. But the other part of that call was in New York for, to be America strong, and for people to return to lower Manhattan, to their homes, to their schools, to their places that they worked at. So in that entire area, which is really for New York, which is, you know, pretty, highly, pretty dense as far as workplaces, schools, people where people lived, people who lived went to, worked, went to school there. We, when I talk to reporters, I like to say, and all the people who responded, which included people in the press, because they were there to, to find out what was going into, share that information with the world.

10:44So yeah, it's pretty expansive, and it is beyond those uniform first responders. I think you mentioned some, there's also all the other folks, the people that worked on the electrical lines, who worked on the telephone lines, who helped rebuild the areas down there. We have some restriction by statute on the dates that are covered, for eligible, people would become eligible. But let me give you a comparison, a couple of things. First, right now, the claims that we have, not of all the claims that have been paid out, but of the claims that we have in house for VCF2. We have 55,744 responder claims, and 55,475 survivor claims. Last month alone, we received new claims from 548 survivors and 308 responders. And that's not that the responders being left out is that the responders had more structural ways that they could find out about the VCF, where our outreach efforts and others are really now

11:47letting what we call survivors, those non-first responders know that the VCF is here, that we have funding that we can pay them, and that they may be eligible. We've been speaking with Allison Terkel, the special master of the September 11th victim compensation fund, more after this. That's one of the reasons I'm glad we're talking to you, because when people hear about this, you know, in far-flying areas of the United States, they may say, okay, well, that's a Washington, D.C. Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Lower Manhattan situation there. People move, people go all over the place for people who may be in another area of the country who may hear this, and are having health difficulties, or don't even have it considered, hey, this could be involved in that. This is one of the reasons that we wanted to make sure that we put the word out there for everybody who is concerned with this, or loved ones of people who may not even have considered, hey, this could be an illness that stems from that 25 years ago.

12:50Yeah, absolutely. So, for example, we do have claims from every state, because in particular, if you really think about it, in the New York City area, and even in the Pentagon area, people are very mobile, and they move anyway. As a result of the terrorist attacks, people definitely moved as a result of that. Some people were residents, some people were there for other purposes. And went back to where they came from. So, we want to make sure that people know what we sort of say is if you were there, so meaning there at one of the three sites, I register with the VCF. Registration is easy. You do not have to be sick. That information is available on our website, which is very straightforward, www.bcf.gov, and registration information is there. It's really straightforward information, and then that preserves people's ability to file a claim in the future. Should they become sick? I also should add on behalf of the health program that not only do they

13:52have what they call their centers of excellence in the New York City area, they have a nationwide network of providers across the country. And so, if people go to their website and look up where they can find that, they can go and find out if the illness they have had or have had may have been September 11th related. And they will, if they are currently sick, they can receive treatment for that as well as what they need to be certified to then come if they're eligible and apply to the VCF. You've been the special master of the September 11th victim compensation fund since March of 2023. That's correct. What is this job like to do on a daily basis? It's an honor to do this job on a daily basis, because as you've heard from the numbers that we talk about, and we always want to make sure that we know we're not talking just about numbers, we're talking about people, the VCF handles each claim individually. Our staff is dedicated to

14:56serving this community. And so, every day that I handle a claim that my staff handles a claim, it reminds us as to what happened and what the effects of that are. And we are part of the solution. And so, I feel like we are engaged in activities that let people know that we didn't just crumble in fall after those attacks, that we were in fact America's strong, but it's persisted. And that here we are attending to the needs of those people that were exposed to toxins for all the variety of reasons we've spoken about. So, for me, for my staff, it is a mission-driven job. And therefore, despite how much we feel for people's suffering, we also are dedicated to

15:56doing what we can to make their lives better. I think we would be remiss if we did not spend at least a little time talking about all the people that have been lost due to 9-11 related illnesses. That number is in the many thousands, is it not? Yes. So, right now, we have 9,781 claims that have been filed on behalf of an individual who's believed to have died of a September 11th related illness. If you compare that to the people that we lost on the day itself, that number far exceeds the people who perished on September 11th and shortly thereafter. At the World Trade Center, 2,753 people died, including people on the plains and in the building and on the ground. 184 people died at the Pentagon and 40 people aboard Flight 93 died on September 11th. And because I said now, we have claims from 9,781 people have died from exposure

17:03to the toxins. So, the number is large. It's unfortunately growing as people become sick, continue to become sick and unfortunately pass away. It seems like you have to be a certain kind of person to do this, this kind of work. I know that your history, your bio is quite lengthy on helping victims, just the shorthand of it is being there for victims. I mean, the police officer work, prosecutor, it just goes on and on and on where you have helped victims and people who have found themselves in these kinds of situations, your whole professional life. Is this, did this seem like a natural progression of that when you were appointed to this role? I was assuming you were appointed to this role. I'm not really sure how you got it, but when you were named Special Master, was this kind of like a progression of what you've been building for throughout your career? Yes, I do think it was a progression. The way that it worked

18:09is I actually to apply for the job and then go through a process and then I was appointed to it. I do think it's a progression of my service to victims throughout my entire career. I'm a native New Yorker. I was born and raised in Washington Heights. My family was living in New York City September 11th. I worked. When I returned to New York as an adult, I worked down the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which is down in the zone. So I have friends and colleagues who have been impacted by this as well as their families. I lost a step relative in the trade centers themselves. It's seen the natural almost place for me to come with the experiences that I've had and to serve this community from a place not just of that experience, expertise, and

19:12background that I have, but also from this personal place where it matters so much to me. One of the things that really stands out from Etonia is that change so much. So many things changed for everybody after September 11th, but for me a lot of it was visual. So when I'm in New York and I used to always look wherever I was to find my bearings to know where I was going to have it as something that really just made me feel I was home. What are the World Trade Centers? And so without them. That change significantly as well as all the other things that we know. So I'm honored to be in this position. We'd like to thank Alison Terkel, the special master of the 9-11 Victim Compensation Fund for joining us on the Fox News rundown evening edition. You can dive even deeper into these stories on the Fox News rewind 9-11 podcast series, offering a comprehensive look back at the

20:13heroism, the tragedy, and the legacy of September 11th through raw first hand accounts. Search Fox News rewind 9-11 wherever you get your podcasts or at FoxNewsPodcast.com. Please continue to join us on the Fox News rundown evening edition as we observe the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001. Thanks for listening. Prime members can listen to the show Add Free on Amazon Music. And for up to the minute news, go to FoxNews.com.