II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 739
To amend title XXXIII of the Public Health Service Act with respect to
flexibility and funding for the World Trade Center Health Program.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Mrs. G
ILLIBRAND(for herself and Mr. SCHUMER) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend title XXXIII of the Public Health Service Act
with respect to flexibility and funding for the World
Trade Center Health Program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘9/11 Responder and 4
Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FLEXIBILITY FOR MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION 1
CERTIFICATIONS UNDER THE WORLD TRADE 2
CENTER HEALTH PROGRAM. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 3305(a) of the Public 4
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300mm–4(a)) is amend-5
ed— 6
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting ‘‘subject 7
to paragraph (6),’’ before ‘‘for’’; and 8
(2) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(6) L
ICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDER 10
FLEXIBILITY FOR MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION CER -11
TIFICATIONS.— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of an 13
initial health evaluation described in paragraph 14
(1)(A) with respect to a mental health condition 15
(including any such evaluation provided under 16
section 3321(b) or through the nationwide net-17
work under section 3313), such evaluation may 18
be conducted by a physician or any other li-19
censed mental health provider in a category of 20
mental health providers determined by the 21
WTC Program Administrator under subpara-22
graph (B). 23
‘‘(B) C
ATEGORIES OF LICENSED MENTAL 24
HEALTH PROVIDERS .—Not later than 180 days 25
after the date of enactment of the 9/11 Re-26
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sponder and Survivor Health Funding Correc-1
tion Act of 2025, the WTC Program Adminis-2
trator shall issue regulations for the categories 3
of licensed mental health providers who, in ad-4
dition to licensed physicians, may conduct eval-5
uations under subparagraph (A) with respect to 6
a mental health condition and make determina-7
tions under section 3312(b) with respect to 8
such a condition.’’. 9
(b) F
LEXIBILITY FORWTC RESPONDERS.—Section 10
3312(b) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 300mm–22(b)) is amend-11
ed— 12
(1) in paragraph (1)(A)— 13
(A) in the matter preceding clause (i), by 14
striking ‘‘physician’’ and inserting ‘‘physician 15
(or, in the case of a mental health condition, a 16
physician or any other qualified mental health 17
provider)’’; and 18
(B) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘physician’’ 19
and inserting ‘‘physician or other qualified men-20
tal health provider’’; 21
(2) in paragraph (2)— 22
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 23
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 24
by striking ‘‘physician’’ and inserting 25
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‘‘physician (or, in the case of a mental 1
health condition, a physician or any other 2
qualified mental health provider)’’; 3
(ii) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘physi-4
cian’’ and inserting ‘‘physician or other 5
qualified mental health provider’’; and 6
(iii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘such 7
physician’s determination’’ and inserting 8
‘‘the determination of such physician or 9
other qualified mental health provider’’; 10
and 11
(B) in subparagraph (B)— 12
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 13
by striking ‘‘physician determinations’’ and 14
inserting ‘‘determinations by physicians 15
(or, in the case of a mental health condi-16
tion, physicians or other qualified mental 17
health providers)’’; and 18
(ii) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘physi-19
cian panel’’ and inserting ‘‘panel of physi-20
cians (or, in the case of a mental health 21
condition, physicians or other qualified 22
mental health providers)’’; 23
(3) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘examining 24
physician’’ and inserting ‘‘examining physician (or, 25
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in the case of a mental health condition, examining 1
physician or other qualified mental health pro-2
vider)’’; and 3
(4) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(6) D
EFINITION OF ‘QUALIFIED MENTAL 5
HEALTH PROVIDER ’.—For purposes of this sub-6
section, the term ‘qualified mental health provider’ 7
means a licensed mental health provider in a cat-8
egory determined by the WTC Program Adminis-9
trator under section 3305(a)(6)(B).’’. 10
SEC. 3. CRITERIA FOR CREDENTIALING HEALTH CARE 11
PROVIDERS PARTICIPATING IN THE NATION-12
WIDE NETWORK. 13
Title XXXIII of the Public Health Service Act (42 14
U.S.C. 300mm et seq.) is amended— 15
(1) in section 3305(a)(2) (42 U.S.C. 300mm– 16
4(a)(2))— 17
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 18
(i) by striking clause (iv); and 19
(ii) by redesignating clauses (v) and 20
(vi) as clauses (iv) and (v), respectively; 21
(B) by striking subparagraph (B); and 22
(C) by redesignating subparagraphs (C) 23
and (D) as subparagraphs (B) and (C), respec-24
tively; and 25
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(2) in section 3313(b)(1) (42 U.S.C. 300mm– 1
23(b)(1)), by striking ‘‘Data Centers’’ and inserting 2
‘‘WTC Program Administrator’’. 3
SEC. 4. CLARIFYING CALCULATION OF ENROLLMENT. 4
(a) R
ESPONDERS.—Section 3311(a) of such Act (42 5
U.S.C. 300mm–21(a)) is amended by adding at the end 6
the following: 7
‘‘(6) D
ECEASED WTC RESPONDERS .—An indi-8
vidual known to the WTC Program Administrator to 9
be deceased shall not be included in any count of en-10
rollees under this subsection or section 3351.’’. 11
(b) S
URVIVORS.—Section 3321(a) of such Act (42 12
U.S.C. 300mm–31(a)) is amended by adding at the end 13
the following: 14
‘‘(5) D
ECEASED WTC SURVIVORS .—An indi-15
vidual known to the WTC Program Administrator to 16
be deceased shall not be included in any count of 17
certified-eligible survivors under this section or in 18
any count of enrollees under section 3351.’’. 19
SEC. 5. TIME PERIOD FOR ADDING HEALTH CONDITIONS 20
TO LIST FOR WTC RESPONDERS. 21
Section 3312(a)(6) of the Public Health Service Act 22
(42 U.S.C. 300mm–22(a)(6)) is amended— 23
(1) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘90’’ and 24
inserting ‘‘180’’; and 25
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(2) in subparagraph (C), in the second sen-1
tence, by striking ‘‘90’’ and inserting ‘‘180’’. 2
SEC. 6. FUNDING FOR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HEALTH 3
PROGRAM. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 3351 of the Public Health 5
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300mm–61) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a)(2)(A), by amending clause 7
(xi) to read as follows: 8
‘‘(xi) for each of fiscal years 2026 9
through 2090— 10
‘‘(I) the amount determined 11
under this subparagraph for the pre-12
vious fiscal year multiplied by 1.07; 13
multiplied by 14
‘‘(II) the ratio of— 15
‘‘(aa) the total number of 16
individuals enrolled in the WTC 17
Program on July 1 of such pre-18
vious fiscal year; to 19
‘‘(bb) the total number of 20
individuals so enrolled on July 1 21
of the fiscal year prior to such 22
previous fiscal year; plus’’; and 23
(2) in subsection (c)— 24
(A) in paragraph (4)— 25
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(i) by amending subparagraph (A) to 1
read as follows: 2
‘‘(A) for fiscal year 2025, the amount de-3
termined for such fiscal year under this para-4
graph as in effect on the day before the date of 5
enactment of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor 6
Health Funding Correction Act of 2025;’’; 7
(ii) by amending subparagraph (B) to 8
read as follows: 9
‘‘(B) for fiscal year 2026, the greater of— 10
‘‘(i) the amount determined for such 11
fiscal year under this paragraph as in ef-12
fect on the day before the date of enact-13
ment of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor 14
Health Funding Correction Act of 2025; or 15
‘‘(ii) the amount expended for the pre-16
vious fiscal year for the purposes described 17
in this paragraph increased by 25 percent; 18
and’’; and 19
(iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 20
‘‘the amount specified under this para-21
graph for the previous fiscal year’’ and in-22
serting ‘‘the amount expended for the pre-23
vious fiscal year for such purposes’’; and 24
(B) in paragraph (5)— 25
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(i) by amending subparagraph (A) to 1
read as follows: 2
‘‘(A) for fiscal year 2025, the amount de-3
termined for such fiscal year under this para-4
graph as in effect on the day before the date of 5
enactment of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor 6
Health Funding Correction Act of 2025;’’; 7
(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 8
(B) as subparagraph (C); 9
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 10
(A) the following: 11
‘‘(B) for fiscal year 2026, the greater of— 12
‘‘(i) the amount determined for such 13
fiscal year under this paragraph as in ef-14
fect on the day before the date of enact-15
ment of the 9/11 Responder and Survivor 16
Health Funding Correction Act of 2025; or 17
‘‘(ii) the amount expended for the pre-18
vious fiscal year for the purpose described 19
in this paragraph increased by 25 percent; 20
and’’; and 21
(iv) in subparagraph (C), as so redes-22
ignated, by striking ‘‘the amount specified 23
under this paragraph for the previous fis-24
cal year’’ and inserting ‘‘the amount ex-25
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pended for the previous fiscal year for such 1
purpose’’. 2
(b) T
ECHNICALAMENDMENTS.—Title XXXIII of the 3
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300mm et seq.) is 4
amended— 5
(1) in section 3352 (42 U.S.C. 300mm–62), by 6
amending subsection (d) to read as follows: 7
‘‘(d) R
EMAININGAMOUNTS.—Amounts remaining in 8
the Supplemental Fund shall revert to the Treasury in ac-9
cordance with section 1552 of title 31, United States 10
Code.’’; 11
(2) in section 3353 (42 U.S.C. 300mm–63), by 12
amending subsection (d) to read as follows: 13
‘‘(d) R
EMAININGAMOUNTS.—Amounts remaining in 14
the Special Fund shall revert to the Treasury in accord-15
ance with section 1552 of title 31, United States Code.’’; 16
and 17
(3) in section 3354 (42 U.S.C. 300mm–64), by 18
amending subsection (d) to read as follows: 19
‘‘(d) R
EMAININGAMOUNTS.—Amounts remaining in 20
the Pentagon/Shanksville Fund shall revert to the Treas-21
ury in accordance with section 1552 of title 31, United 22
States Code.’’. 23
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SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after the 2
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 3
Human Services (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Sec-4
retary’’) shall conduct an assessment of anticipated budg-5
et authority and outlays of the World Trade Center Health 6
Program (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Program’’) 7
through the duration of the Program and submit a report 8
summarizing such assessment to— 9
(1) the Speaker and minority leader of the 10
House of Representatives; 11
(2) the majority and minority leaders of the 12
Senate; 13
(3) the Committee on Health, Education, 14
Labor, and Pensions and Committee on the Budget 15
of the Senate; and 16
(4) the Committee on Energy and Commerce 17
and the Committee on the Budget of the House of 18
Representatives. 19
(b) I
NCLUSIONS.—The report required under sub-20
section (a) shall include— 21
(1) a projection of Program budgetary needs on 22
a per-fiscal year basis through fiscal year 2090; 23
(2) a review of Program modeling for each of 24
fiscal years 2017 through the fiscal year prior to the 25
fiscal year in which the report is issued to assess 26
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how anticipated budgetary needs compared to actual 1
expenditures; 2
(3) an assessment of the projected budget au-3
thority and expenditures of the Program through fis-4
cal year 2090; and 5
(4) any recommendations of the Secretary to 6
make changes to the formula under section 7
3351(a)(2)(A) of the Public Health Service Act (42 8
U.S.C. 300mm–61(a)(2)(A)), as amended by section 9
6(a)(1), to fully offset anticipated Program expendi-10
tures through fiscal year 2090. 11
Æ
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