Another Times editorial...

...that deserves to be reprinted in its entirety:

An Unpaid Debt

Anyone who was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers how the ash, paper and dust of the collapsing towers blew across Lower Manhattan. For days afterward, there was that peculiar smell — of burned paper and chemicals and death. That was the air that filled the lungs of tens of thousands of firefighters, police officers, nurses, paramedics, soldiers and civilian volunteers who toiled for months to uncover the dead.

More than nine years later, many of those first responders are dead. Many are sick. Some are dying. Thousands need care for illnesses contracted through their heroism at ground zero. America owes them help, and Congress is poised to give it to them, if die-hard Republican objectors get out of the way of the majority.

The 9/11 health and compensation bill provides health screenings, treatment and follow-up monitoring for ailing first responders who meet strict eligibility rules. It requires New York to pay 10 percent of the costs.

The bill passed the House in September but ran into a filibuster threat in the Senate from Republicans, ostensibly over the cost. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma called it a waste of money and complained that Democrats were rushing it to a vote. “This bill hasn’t even been through a committee,” he said on Fox News, somehow forgetting that the proper committee held a hearing on the bill on June 29. (Mr. Coburn is a member. He didn’t attend.)

Senate Democrats, led by Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York, have trimmed the costs to $6.2 billion from $7.4 billion. It is fully paid for with such measures as excise fees on certain foreign companies that have federal government contracts and higher visa fees on companies that hire many foreign workers.

Supporters say they have the votes to bypass a Republican filibuster on Wednesday. The House would then have to pass the amended bill. The risk is that senators like Mr. Coburn will delay a vote until the clock runs out.

We will leave it to the Republicans to work out the riddle of the gap between their professed honor for American heroes and their shabby disdain for those who risked their health and lives at ground zero. Mr. Coburn, at least, should allow a vote. President Obama should stop letting Jon Stewart carry the ball, step in and insist that Congress pass the bill. Congress should delay its Christmas break, if needed, to get this done.