FEMA pays back pension costs for 9/11 workers
S. 5385 — A bill to require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse public employee retirement systems for accidental disability retirements and accidental deaths resulting from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells FEMA to pay back money to pension funds. These funds paid workers who got hurt or died during 9/11 rescue work. The bill gives FEMA $5.9 billion to pay for this. States and cities will not have to pay from their own budgets.
Who it affects
Workers and their families who were hurt or died during 9/11 rescue work keep their pay. States and cities save money because FEMA pays instead.
One thing to notice
The bill only covers workers hurt or killed by accident during 9/11 rescue work. It may not cover sickness like lung disease or cancer from 9/11 dust.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 14, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- FEMA — The part of the national government that helps after disasters.
- pension funds — Money that pays workers when they retire or get hurt at work.
- pay back — Give money to someone who already spent it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,040 characters) on Sep 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-22.
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