Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart made an appearance on his old Comedy Central show Monday to take aim at members of Congress who he said are dragging their feet over something he’s long championed: health care funding for 9/11 first responders.
Stewart, donning a gray t-shirt and snow white beard, blasted lawmakers for not automatically renewing a bill that provides health care coverage and compensation to the first responders who worked at the sight of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks. Many first responders later fell ill or died as a result of working on the sight, where chemicals and toxins filled the air. The bill, called the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act , expired in part in September 2015; another part of the act will expire next October.
“These first responders, many sick with cancers and pulmonary disease, have had to travel at their own expense to Washington, D.C., hundreds of times to plead for our government to do the right thing,” Stewart said. “My only conclusion is the people of Congress are not as good of people as the people who are first responders”
Watch the full clip above.
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