WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It's been 11 years since terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center towers, and more than a year-and-a-half since President Barack Obama signed into law a bill meant to compensate responders and survivors sickened from exposure to the hazardous debris and toxins of Ground Zero.

But they're going to have to wait a while longer -- perhaps more than a year -- before most of them start to see any of the money authorized in the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

"It's going to be a process, and I think it's going to take a year or two until that process really gets moving," said Sheila Birnbaum, the special master of the $2.775 billion 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. "People have to get medical records, they have to do all kinds of things, and they're going to have to get certified that they meet the criteria."

The compensation fund was supposed to start work in July of 2011, and many believed that money would start to flow a year later. It hasn't, and although there are explanations for why, people whose lives were shattered by the terrorists' attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are starting to get frustrated.

"These people need the the money. I talk to a lot of them, they're all struggling along and they're not getting anything," said Joe Zadroga, the father of the late police officer after whom the Zadroga Act is named.

"These people are really down," Zadroga added. "I just get upset about it because we fought so hard to get that bill passed, and now they're dragging their feet on it."

"We still haven't gotten 10 cents," said TJ Gilmartin, a construction worker from Brooklyn who rushed to Ground Zero with a truck after the attacks, and has seen his ability to work deteriorate, along with the health of his lungs.

"I've had people turn around and say, 'You can go get food stamps,'" Gilmartin said, noting that he believed they meant well. "I'm so lucky, I got a fiancee that's been taking care of me," he said. "My Corvette is gone, my Rolex is gone. Everything that I worked 30 years for in construction, worked hard for, I had to sell to live."

While people like Gilmartin and Zadroga are frustrated, they aren't necessarily ready to start handing out blame.

That's because a large part of the delay stemmed from the debate over whether or not cancer would be covered under the Zadroga Act. The causes of cancer are complicated, and there was relatively scant data to analyze because the Bush administration hadn't set up the original 9/11 health program to collect it or study it.

But the question was finally answered Monday, when the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health issued a rule declaring that some 50 varieties of cancer would be covered for peopled deemed to have suffered sufficient exposure. That rule will be published Wednesday and go into effect after 30 days.

Responders are relieved cancer will be covered, but it also creates problems because covering cancer is much more expensive, and potentially opens up the compensation fund to more people, including many who don't yet know if they are sick. At the same time, the money to pay for it is fixed at $2.775 billion, unlike the first compensation fund authorized soon after the attacks, which was unlimited.

Simply starting to make payments before the cancer question was answered could have exhausted the money too quickly -- even if responders like Gilmartin are in dire need of assistance now.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/9-11-fund-september-11-responders_n_1872349.html