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Twenty-five years ago today, the world changed in a single morning. Since then, thousands more have died of illnesses tied to that day, and thousands more are still fighting them. On this anniversary, we remember all of them, and we recommit to the work of representing the people this attack is still harming.
On September 8, 2026, New York City opened a public portal containing roughly 170,000 pages of records on post-9/11 air quality and the city's response. Most of the coverage is about what the city knew and when. There is a second story in the settlement that produced the release, and it matters to the people we represent: the city has committed to helping responders, survivors, former city employees, and former public school students obtain the records they need to prove where they were.
The WTC Health Program's latest quarterly summary shows something that has never happened before. Of the members certified for a 9/11-related cancer over the lifetime of the program, 28,913 are survivors and 28,131 are responders. Survivors, the people who lived, worked, or went to school in the affected area, now outnumber the responders who worked the pile for 9/11-related cancer..
In July 2026, a NYC Department of Health report put Staten Island at the top of the city's cancer mortality rankings, again. A few days later, the Staten Island Advance asked why the island has never gotten a comprehensive cancer study. It's a conversation Staten Island has been having with itself for a generation. This post is about why, and about the one place on the Island where federal law already drew a line: workers who handled 9/11 debris at Fresh Kills can access the WTC Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). The people who worked and lived beside there cannot.
After reviewing 20 scientific studies, the WTC Health Program's Administrator has denied a set of petitions asking that ischemic heart disease, including heart attack and coronary artery disease, be added to the List of WTC-Related Health Conditions. Here is what the decision says, and does not say, about 9/11 and heart disease.
A New York Supreme Court justice has ordered city officials to testify under oath about why the Department of Environmental Protection spent more than a year denying it had any records on post-9/11 air quality, then turned over 68 boxes. Here is what changed, and why it matters to the people we represent.
For 24 years, the annual September 11th commemoration has paused six times. On the 25th anniversary, a seventh moment of silence will honor those lost to 9/11-related illness. Here is what changed, and why it matters to the people we represent.