The fund established by Congress to
compensate the families of those who died on Sept. 11 closed its
books earlier this year. According to Kenneth Feinberg, the special
master appointed to administer the fund, all but a handful of the
families eligible to apply for an award did so. All told, 2,878
families received tax-free payments averaging nearly $2.1 million
apiece. Payments were also made to another 2,675 people, mostly
rescue workers, who were injured that day at Ground Zero or the
Pentagon.
All told, the government
disbursed nearly $7 billion - roughly $1 billion for those who were
injured and $6 billion for the families of those who
died.
Feinberg, an experienced
arbitrator and former chief of staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, has
been widely praised for the skill and efficiency with which he
administered the fund, and for the sensitivity he brought to the
wrenching job of meeting with grieving families and putting a dollar
amount to the lives of their loved ones. Those who know him describe
him as a man of sincerity, intelligence, and goodwill. So when he
says that the federal payout was a "good idea" - as he did during a
recent forum at the John F. Kennedy presidential library in Boston -
it might seem reasonable to take his word for it.
But the government fund was *not* a good idea. And
Feinberg is too honest not to acknowledge its gaping
problems.
To begin with, there was
the injustice of having the feds bestow multimillion-dollar jackpots
on the Sept. 11 families when countless other families struck by
tragedy get nothing. Asked at the Boston forum why the death of an
employee in the World Trade Center is more deserving of compensation
than the death of a hurricane victim in Florida, Feinberg
acknowledged that "from the perspective of the victims," it isn't.
There was no satisfactory way, he confessed, to answer the letters
that came from other shattered families:
"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my son died at Oklahoma City.
Where's my check?"
"Dear Mr.
Feinberg, my daughter died in the African embassy bombings in 1997
in Kenya. How come I'm not eligible?"
"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my wife died in the first World
Trade Center attack in 1993, committed by the very same
people. How come I'm not getting a check?"
"I even got a letter," he recalled, "from somebody
who said, 'Mr. Feinberg, my husband last year saved three little
girls from drowning in the Mississippi River, and then he went under
and drowned: a hero. Where's my check?'"
But the sheer unfairness of the federal fund wasn't
the only thing wrong with it. With so much money at stake, the
program predictably caused feuds and bad blood.
"You would get situations like this," Feinberg
said. " 'Mr. Feinberg, I'm the brother of the victim. Don't let my
sister get a nickel. The victim hated his sister, trust me.' Then
the sister comes in. 'Is my brother spreading rumors. . .? My
[deceased] brother and I loved each other.'
"Or: 'Mr. Feinberg, I'm the biological parent of my
son who was killed. Don't you dare give the fiancee any money. That
marriage was never going to take place.' Then the fiancee comes in.
`We were going to be married on October 11th.' And you go back to
the biological parent. 'They were going to be married October 11th.
You threw a shower for them. You said you were gaining a daughter,
not losing a son.' 'Yeah, but on Sept. 10, my son told me it was
off.'"
Then there was the issue of
private charity.
Awards from the
federal compensation fund were reduced by the amount of any
insurance proceeds the families received (in effect punishing the
relatives of victims who had been responsible enough to plan ahead).
Yet they were not reduced to offset any charity the survivors
collected. Which meant, in many cases, that the government ended up
paying a fortune to people who had already collected a fortune from
private donors. USA Today reported in 2002 that relatives of New
York police officers received an average of $929,000 in charitable
funds. The families of firefighters and ambulance crews got
$1,037,000. Those gifts, too, were tax-free.
An estimated $2.8 billion was donated by millions
of Americans following the 9/11 attacks. Billions more came pouring
in as in-kind goods and services - everything from food and air
travel to financial planning and slots at children's camps. Well
before Congress created the federal compensation fund, individual
donors and private charities were stepping up to the plate,
demonstrating their compassion with the extraordinary generosity
that is so often the hallmark of ordinary Americans. There was no
reason for the government to get involved.
"When you really look at all the problems you
confront with a program like this," Feinberg said in Boston, it's "a
fair question whether any of this is a good idea. . . . I don't
think people should . . . assume that this is a precedent that we're
going to repeat."
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The fund established by Congress to
compensate the families of those who died on Sept. 11 closed its
books earlier this year. According to Kenneth Feinberg, the special
master appointed to administer the fund, all but a handful of the
families eligible to apply for an award did so. All told, 2,878
families received tax-free payments averaging nearly $2.1 million
apiece. Payments were also made to another 2,675 people, mostly
rescue workers, who were injured that day at Ground Zero or the
Pentagon. 
