Rhetorical Commitments

Weren't firefighters big supporters of Sen. Collins in 2008?

First responders from across the country came to New York after Sept. 11, 2001, and there are very few who can understand how the country is about to let the 9/11 health bill die in the Senate.

Among the dumbfounded count Maine’s Capt. Mike Clark, of the Bath Fire Department, who is calling on his two senators, Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to rescue the faltering bill.

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Clark, a former Long Islander, doesn’t really see how, with all the money the nation is spending on the wars sparked after 9/11, it can't find the cash to fund the $7.4 billion James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, to care to for the first responders.

[...]

Senate Republicans voted against moving the Zadroga bill forward last week, saying they want to pass tax cuts for the wealthy first. But with the tax deal all but certain to pass, none have come forward to move ahead with Zadroga--and the clock is running out. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has said he'd back the bill. Just one more Republican is needed to pass it.

Collins and Snowe’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.