77 20 12614 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, January 22, 2002 4:55 PM Cantor Fitzgerald L.P.'s Comments on Interim Final Rules Attachment 1: To: Kenneth L. Zwick Director, Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20530 Re: Interim Final Rule with Request for Comments, 28 C.F.R. Part 104 COMMENT OF CANTOR FITZGERALD L.P. ON THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE'S INTERIM FINAL RULES IMPLEMENTING THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001 Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., together with its affiliates, eSpeed, Inc. and TradeSpark L.P. (collectively referred to herein as "Cantor Fitzgerald"), submit these comments on the Department's "Interim Final Rules with Request for Comments," published at 28 C.F.R. Part 104, implementing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. Cantor Fitzgerald previously submitted comments in response to the Department's Notice of Inquiry, which are incorporated herein by reference and which shall be referred to as the "First Cantor Comment." As Cantor Fitzgerald previously observed, the statute establishing the Fund was enacted to ensure that the victims of the September 11th tragedy and their families received full and complete compensation. The plain language of the statute - as well as the legislative history - makes it clear that the Special Master must fully compensate claimants for their economic and non-economic losses, except for the collateral source offsets. See First Cantor Comment at 21-22. There is absolutely nothing in the statutory language or the legislative history that authorizes the Special Master to discriminate against claimants based on their economic status or to award any claimant less than full compensation for their losses. Id. One of the reasons it is so important that the Fund provide full and complete compensation for all claimants is that Congress, in the same statute, severely impeded the victims' ability to obtain full compensation in lawsuits. See The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, PL 107-42 at § 408. Indeed, one of the Fund's primary purposes is to be an efficient alternative to lawsuits. The Interim Rules, along with the Presumed Economic and Non-Economic Loss Tables, do not adequately serve the Fund's objectives. The Special Master has correctly recognized that for victims and their families to be able to decide whether to file a claim - and thereby waive their ability to sue - they must understand "how their award will be calculated and how much they would receive from the Fund should they file a claim." Statement by the Special Master at 9. The Interim Rules and Presumed Loss Tables fail to give the victims and their families this crucial information, thereby forcing many to either file lawsuits or delay their decision until the Special Master creates a track record of actual awards. Cantor Fitzgerald commends the Department and the Special Master for devising a mechanism by which claimants may obtain an advance award of benefits prior to the completion of filing their claims. But to obtain these advance benefits, one must affirmatively opt into the Fund and thereby forego the right to sue. Thus, if the advance benefits program is to achieve its objectives, potential claimants must know right away how their claims will be decided so that they can decide whether to opt into the Fund. This includes knowing the formula that will be used to calculate presumed awards, and knowing whether payments from employers like Cantor Fitzgerald will be used to reduce any award from the Fund. The Interim Rules also defeat the purposes of the Fund by undercompensating claimants, particularly in the area of non-economic loss. The fixed amount of presumed non-economic loss is arbitrarily low and bears no rational relationship to the statutorily mandated elements of non-economic loss. Moreover, by undercompensating claimants, the Department is defeating the statute's purpose of encouraging victims to opt into the Fund. Indeed, this is particularly true for those families who have received payments (e.g., life insurance) that will be subtracted from any Fund award as collateral source payments; if those families will receive little or nothing from the Fund, then they have no incentive to become a claimant and forego their right to sue. I. The Final Rules Should Clearly State that Voluntary Payments To Victims and Their Families Made By Employers Are Not Collateral Source Payments and Will Not Be Deducted from any Claimant's Award Cantor Fitzgerald previously explained its intention to provide for the benefit of its lost employees' families 25% of the firm's profits that otherwise would have been paid to its partners over the course of five years. See Cantor's First Comment at 2. Although this stated intention has not created a legal entitlement or obligation, Cantor Fitzgerald remains absolutely firm in its intention to make such voluntary payments if the Department's Final Rules do not attempt to render them meaningless by counting such payments as "collateral source" offsets that are deducted from claimants' Fund awards. The Department has properly concluded that the Fund should encourage, rather than discourage, private contributions to victims of the September 11th tragedy. See Special Master's Statement at 10 ("deducting charitable awards from the amount of compensation would have the perverse effect of encouraging potential donors to withhold their giving until after claimants have received their awards from the Fund"). Unfortunately, the Interim Rules, as drafted, do not clearly indicate that all voluntary payments from private entities and individuals will not be considered to be "collateral source payments" by the Special Master. This confusion about whether an employer's voluntary payments will reduce a claimant's award may prevent certain victims or their families from filing claims with the Fund. The Final Rules should clearly state that such voluntary payments shall not be considered "collateral source payments" regardless of whether they are made by a 501(c) charitable organization. Congress clearly intended to encourage employers - and not just charitable organizations - to make voluntary contributions to victims' families in the wake of the September 11th tragedy. Immediately after the tragedy, bills were introduced in both the House and the Senate that provided, among other things, an incentive to encourage employers to make such voluntary payments to victims and their families. As its last legislative act of 2001, Congress passed H.R. 2884, the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 2001 ("The Victims Tax Act"). Section 102 of the Victims Tax Act amended the Internal Revenue Code so that amounts voluntarily paid by an employer to an employee who died in the September 11th attacks are not included in the employee's gross income, and thus not subject to income tax. One of the Victims Tax Act's original sponsors, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), plainly indicated that one of the purposes of this provision was to encourage employers to make voluntary payments, just as the Act encouraged charitable organizations to make such payments: In the wake of the attacks, a number of employers who had workers killed in the World Trade Centers, in the Pentagon, and in the airplanes used as weapons stepped up to the plate with generous offers of help to their lost colleagues' families. Under current law, payments such as these would typically be taxed, which would reduce the amount of help going directly to the surviving families. Our bill exempts these payments from Federal income tax liability. . . . The charitable community is playing an important role in helping our Nation recover from this tragedy. Our bill makes it easier for charitable organizations to make disaster relief payments to victims and their families. Our bill also makes it easier for companies to establish private foundations to help the survivors with both short-term and long-term needs, such as scholarships for the victims' children. 147 Cong. Rec. S11991-01, S11992-S11993.1 It would be sadly ironic to have Congress exempt private voluntary assistance from income taxation in the Victims Tax Act, only to have the Special Master claim the entire amount of such assistance for the government's treasury as a "collateral source payment" under the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund. Such a result would take money from the pockets of victims, thwart the intent of the donors, discourage private victim assistance, and contravene clear Congressional intent. The Department and the Special Master must be guided by Congressional intent in determining what is a "collateral source payment" that must be deducted from a claimant's Fund award. Both the Department and the Special Master already have recognized that Congress, in enacting the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund of 2001, did not intend to discourage charitable giving and therefore did not intend for such payments to be considered "collateral sources" under the statute. As Cantor Fitzgerald previously explained, voluntary payments made by employers are no different than charitable gifts in this respect. Cantor's First Comment at 9-14. The actions and expressed intentions of Congress surrounding the Victims Tax Act further support the conclusion that voluntary payments from employers also should be encouraged and that such payments should not be considered "collateral source payments" in the Final Rules promulgated by the Department. Section 104.47 of the Interim Rules should be amended to clarify that voluntary payments by employers in the wake of the September 11th tragedy are not collateral source payments subject to offset. Although this result could be achieved in a variety of ways, Cantor Fitzgerald proposes the following additional subsection to Interim Rule § 104.47(b), which addresses what payments are not collateral sources: (3) Voluntary payments distributed by employers to the beneficiaries or estate of the decedent, to the injured claimant, or to the beneficiaries of the injured claimant; provided, however, that on September 11, 2001 the recipient had no pre-existing entitlement to such payments as a result of life insurance, pension funds, or death benefit programs. II. A Significant Group of Victims Is Being Deprived of Vital Information About How a Fund Award Would Be Calculated for Them The Presumed Loss Tables promulgated by the Department do not reflect how the loss calculation will be made for victims who earned in excess of $225,000 annually. Even the Special Master, in his Statement, recognized that information about how the loss calculation will be made is critical for the victims and their families. There simply is no justification for keeping a select group of claimants in the dark about how the Special Master would calculate their damages. The Department attempted to develop a neutral formula for calculating economic loss that used standardized assumptions from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System, and the Board of Actuaries of the Military Retirement System. See Loss Tables at 1-2.2 The Interim Rules, however, do not apply this "neutral" formula to all claimants equally. Rather, the Interim Rules discriminate against those claimants whose decedents earned more than $231,000 by precluding the Special Master from issuing a "presumed award" for economic loss above the $231,000 income level. See Interim Rules § 104.43(a). Thus, it would appear that a claimant whose decedent had an annual income above $231,000 could not receive a "presumed award" under Track A (id. at § 104.31(b)(1)) that would compensate her for her full economic loss. Rather, she would be forced to participate in a hearing under Track B, which would still use the artificially-capped "presumptive award methodology" outlined in § 104.43(a). This is manifestly unfair and contrary to the purpose of the Act, which is to fully compensate all victims and their families according to their actual loss. Both the Department and the Special Master have gone out of their way to suggest that the "neutral" formula used to create the Presumed Loss Tables will not apply to claims beyond a certain income level.3 Although the Interim Rules and the Presumed Loss Tables do not contain any express maximum limits on the amount of final awards and the Special Master has stressed that there are "no caps" on individual awards, the fundamental question remains: How are awards going to be calculated for claimants whose annual incomes exceed the Department's Presumed Loss Tables? Cantor Fitzgerald reiterates that the statute contains no language or legislative history that gives the Department or the Special Master the discretion to artificially limit the amount of compensation paid to any particular class of claimants. Rather, the whole purpose of the statute is "to provide compensation." PL 107-42 at § 403. Indeed, the statute explicitly requires that the Special Master must determine the amount of each claimant's actual economic and non-economic losses, and only then may the Special Master calculate the amount of compensation to which the claimant is entitled.4 Thus, if the Special Master intends to award less than a claimant's actual losses, he still must make a determination of what those losses actually are, so that the disparity between the award and the actual economic and non-economic losses is apparent. Before deciding whether to participate in the Fund, victims and their families must know how the Special Master is going to calculate their actual losses and - if the Special Master is not going to compensate them for all of their damages - the formula for how the Special Master will reduce the amount of their actual damages to make an award from the Fund. How can any attorney advise a client to opt into the Fund without knowing the range of the probable award, particularly where the decedent had a significant amount of life insurance or other benefits that the Special Master may deduct from any Fund award? By failing to give this basic information, the Interim Rules, as drafted, either force certain classes of potential claimants to eschew the Fund or, at the very least, delay filing a claim until the Special Master establishes a pattern through published awards. The Department contends that the Special Master's authority to consider "the individual circumstances of the claimant" in making an award gives it the authority to effectively limit the maximum amount of Fund awards in a way that certain claimants receive awards for less than their full damages. The Department is incorrect. Congress could have written a maximum limit into the statute, expressly charged the Department with setting a maximum limit on awards, or even limited the total amount of payments that could have been made by the Fund. Congress did none of these things. In fact, the only authority Congress gave for awarding claimants less than their actual damages was to charge the Special Master with reducing the amount of an award by the amount of collateral source compensation a claimant received. § 405(b)(6). Nothing in either the statute or the legislative history supports the Department's conclusion regarding its authority to effectively set a maximum limit on Fund awards. If there really is a maximum limit on the amount of awards from the Fund, then the Final Rules should spell it out. If, as the Special Master has repeatedly suggested, there are "no caps" on Fund awards, then the Final rules should expressly state this fact and the Department should publish the formula the Special Master will employ to determine the amounts of economic and non-economic losses for all victims, including those not included in the current Presumed Loss Tables. And all victims - including those whose annual income exceeded that listed on the Presumed Loss Tables - should have the opportunity to participate in Track A (and thereby perhaps avoid a Track B hearing) by having the Special Master review their claim form and offer them a presumed award that is not artificially limited to an amount less than their actual damages. The present Interim Rules and Presumed Loss Tables arbitrarily discriminate against a class of potential claimants for no good reason and unfairly disadvantage people who are trying to decide whether to participate in the Fund. As such, they should be amended: (1) The following language should be added at the beginning of § 104.43: "There are no maximum limits on the amount of awards for economic loss, and the Special Master shall not employ the 'presumed economic loss' as a maximum limit on a claimant's recovery for actual economic losses." (2) The following language should be deleted from § 104.43(a): "up to but not beyond the 98th percentile of individual income in the United States for the year 2000." (3) The Presumed Loss Tables should be supplemented by the addition of various annual income levels above $225,000, up to $1,000,000. Accordingly, the following language should be deleted from page 1 of the Presumed Loss Tables: "For those victims whose salary exceeded the top 2 percent of wage earners (as defined by the IRS for the year 2000), the Special Master will compute the presumed award based on an average income equal to the minimum amount earned by the top 2 percent of wage earners." (4) The formula used to create the Presumed Loss Tables also should be published. III. The Amount of Presumed Non-Economic Loss Is Woefully Inadequate Congress broadly defined "non-economic losses" to include all forms of physical and emotional pain and suffering. Moreover, unlike its definition of economic loss, Congress did not tether the award of "non-economic losses" to those types of damages recoverable at state law. Compare PL 107-42 at § 402(5) with id. at § 402(7). Thus, Congress clearly intended compensation for non-economic losses to be liberally applied. The flaw with the Department's Interim Rules is that they arbitrarily fix the amount of non-economic loss without reference to the elements of such loss outlined by Congress or the jury awards and court judgments typically rendered for such elements. The Interim Rules fix the presumed award for non-economic losses at $250,000 for decedents and $50,000 for each dependent. The structure of the Interim Rules, as well as the Statement by the Special Master, strongly suggest that the Department did not properly value each of the elements of non-economic loss the statute requires to be determined. The Department seeks to justify the amounts it has fixed for non-economic losses - which include, inter alia, physical and emotional pain and suffering, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life5 - by referring to two federal statutes. See Statement by the Special Master at 9-10. These statutes, however, are in no way designed to set a benchmark for measuring such losses. The first statute, entitled "Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance," 38 U.S.C. § 1967, is merely life insurance. It contains no formula for calculating any form of loss for pain and suffering or any of the other elements of non-economic loss the Special Master is charged with determining. The $250,000 figure is simply the maximum amount of life insurance available under the plan. The second statute, entitled Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits, 42 U.S.C. § 3796, similarly contains no methodology for evaluating the various elements of non-economic losses the Special Master must determine for each claimant to the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund. As with servicemembers' life insurance, the $250,000 amount in 42 U.S.C. § 3796 represents the maximum death benefit, and is not a proxy for pain and suffering or other non-economic damages. Even more troubling is the Department's statement that its $50,000 per dependent presumed non-economic loss contains a "noneconomic component of 'replacement services loss.'" Statement by the Special Master at 10. Of course "replacement services" under the statute drafted by Congress are part of the definition for economic loss, not non-economic loss. Taken together, the Department's use of federal life insurance/death benefits as the lodestar for pain and suffering and its mistaken inclusion of "replacement services" as non-economic loss suggest that the Department's extraordinarily low maximum limits for the presumed award for non-economic loss are arbitrary, capricious, and at odds with the plain language of the statute. See also and , Sept. 11 Families Fight Fund Rules, WASH. POST at B1 (Jan. 17, 2002) (The Special Master "told families that he has no power to increase the $250,000 'pain and suffering' element of the award. He said he negotiated that figure with the White House, the Justice Department, and the Office of Management and Budget. 'If that number is going to be changed, it will have to be by Republicans applying pressure to the administration,' he told a group of families in New York."); , Politics and the Plan, NEWSDAY at A7 (Jan. 18, 2002) (the Special Master "told families in private meetings this week that he does not have the power to lift a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages . . . [and that] they must apply political pressure to the White House Office of Management and Budget. . . . The limits . . . suggest to some that political ideology is playing a role in the compensation formula [because a] limit of $250,000 for pain and suffering awards is a cornerstone of GOP tort reform legislation."). Certainly, there is nothing to suggest that the Department engaged in any rational methodology to fix a value on each of the elements of non-economic loss enumerated by Congress: "physical and emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium (other than loss of domestic service), hedonic damages, injury to reputation, and all other nonpecuniary losses of any kind or nature." PL 102-47 at § 402(7). This is in stark contrast to the presumed economic loss articulated by the Department, for which the Department at least sought to identify the elements of its calculations and its basic methodology. If the Department intended to set a standardized amount of presumed non-economic loss, it should have considered, inter alia, the amount of damages routinely awarded by courts for each of the elements of non-economic loss as defined by Congress. After all, Congress created the Fund as an alternative to litigation with the express purpose of compensating victims of the September 11th tragedy. Even a cursory review of the reported jury verdicts and cases reflects that $250,000 is grossly inadequate compensation for victims' non-economic losses. See, e.g., Ramos v. La Montana Moving & Storage, Inc., 247 A.D.2d 333, 333-34 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep't 1998) (where decedent was struck by an automobile and lived for 15 to 30 minutes, the trial court erred by reducing the $3,000,000 jury award for conscious pain and suffering to $250,000, and the appellate court accordingly increased the award to $900,000).6 This is especially true for claims involving surviving victims who must undergo extraordinarily painful treatments such as debridement. See, e.g., Weigl v. Quincy Specialties Co., 2001 WL 1664667 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Oct. 23, 2001) (where plaintiff "underwent excruciating debridements and two skin graft surgeries" as a result of burns to 17% of her body and the jury awarded her $19,410,000 for past and future pain and suffering, trial court analyzed the range of recoveries in recent New York burn cases and reduced the award to $8,000,000 - an amount some 32 times the presumed amount of non-economic loss in the Department's Interim Rules). Cantor Fitzgerald had a small number of employees who survived the attack on September 11, but suffered horrible burns over large portions of their bodies. One of these employees has since died, and the rest of these victims will bear excruciating pain for the rest of their lives. To presume that their pain and suffering is worth only $250,000 is manifestly unjust. As Cantor Fitzgerald previously observed,7 setting a presumptive award for non-economic loss can be beneficial for claimants, so long as it does not operate as a maximum limit on their recovery and those claimants who elect a hearing can have a real possibility of obtaining an award in excess of the presumed award, so long as such an award is warranted by the merits. However, the Department must use case law and jury verdicts as its guide in setting the amount of the presumed non-economic loss. A presumptive award of $250,000 falls far short of adequate compensation and is without any legal support whatsoever. The Department should derive its presumed non-economic loss from an analysis of the amounts juries awarded for each of the elements of non-economic loss as defined by Congress. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons and those contained in Cantor's First Comment, the Department should revise the Interim Rules to (1) declare that voluntary contributions from employers shall not be collateral offsets, (2) provide a Presumed Loss Table and corresponding award for every potential claimant based on the same formula, regardless of income level, and (3) significantly increase the amount of the presumed non-economic loss as reflected by numerous jury verdicts. Dated: January 22, 2002 Respectfully submitted, Comment by: General Counsel & Secretary CANTOR FITZGERALD L.P. New York, New York September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN002305.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 19, 2001 4:36 PM Crisis Relief Benefits December 19, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment Cambridge, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA003550.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 13, 2001 Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 To Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families. Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those who were already well off in the first place. The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove that their union is legitimate. Fortunately both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should do the same. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment West Lafayette,IN September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA005150.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, November 13, 2001 11:22 AM Fwd:WTC Victim - Concerns about Proposed Victims Compensatio ____________________Forward Header_____________________ Senator Jon Corzine 1 Gateway Center - 11th Floor Newark, NJ 07102-5257 RE: WORLD TRADE CENTER VICTIMS FEDERAL COMPENSATION PROGRAM ( Employee) Dear Senator Corzine: My husband was a 52 year old employee of for 20 years, and is one of the many employees who is missing at the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, he was on the 101st Floor at the time of the terrorist attack. To say that my two children and I are devastated and are feeling a great loss is to grossly understate our feelings. He was a wonderful husband and a very involved father, and will be greatly missed. As a result of this horrible tragedy, my family is now in a state of great uncertainty. We have not only lost our husband/father but the sole supporter of our household. I am in the midst of seeking financial relief and have tried to keep abreast of all developments relating to governmental programs currently being discussed. The Federal Compensation Program has been one option that I am eagerly awaiting the details. However, there have been some rumors that have not only upset me but have made me feel like my husband has become a victim a second time. I have heard that Congress is working on a formula in order to figure out the compensation a family will get under this Federal Compensation Program. It is my understanding that a victim's annual compensation and age on September 11th will be determining factors in that formula. It is also my understanding that in the formula the amount of years that one is expected to work is also a critical factor. Lastly, it has been suggested to me that Congress is contemplating using the age of 55 years or 60 years as the baseline for one to retire, and, therefore, compensation would not be figured for any years past that. I am of the further understanding that the expected workable years will also vary according to the industry (in our case, that being the brokerage industry). To say that the above factors, in my opinion, are grossly unfair and lacking in justice, once again, understates my feelings. My husband was a healthy 52 year old man, who had every intention of working until he was at least 65 years old. Retirement before 65 was simply not an option for him since financially we were not prepared. He worked for for 20 years, as I mentioned before, and had very little fringe benefits. The Company did not provide a pension and while my husband did make contributions into a 401K, his Company did not make any additional contributions into that account. Additionally, the market has been such that my husband lost a great deal of the money he had put into the 401K Plan. For these reasons, we could not have afforded retirement and, therefore, he would have worked until 65 years old or older. I am certain that I am not the only one in this situation. Therefore, since you are my State Senator, I ask that you truly represent my family (and, most importantly, my deceased husband) when Congress puts together the final details for the Federal Compensation Program. It is not my desire to take the litigation route, especially since my family is not in a position to wait for the Courts. I have two kids that need to be taken care of and without a fair compensation program I will be unable to adequately provide for them. Since my husband was 52 years old, he had at least another 13 years that he would have had to work. My husband's life was cut short by terrorists. Please do not make him a victim again by cutting short the years that he planned to work. He would never have considered retirement before the age of 65 and I am simply asking that Congress take our situation into consideration when they fine-tune the formula in which they use in determining the compensation that the victim's families receive. It is the only fair and just way to treat this unfortunate matter. Please do not allow Congress to victimize us again by not providing us with the support that my husband had planned to provide. I would appreciate your response to the above as soon as possible. If you would like, you can either reach me by telephone at or at . My e-mail address is . I am having a difficult enough time dealing with the loss of my husband, and, in addition, having to deal with the financial problems that I am now faced with is way too much to bear. Thanking you in advance for your prompt attention, Very truly yours, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojW000332.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. January 22, 2002 Via Facsimile: Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20530 Dear Mr. Zwick, My husband, , died in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. I am writing to express my serious concerns and objections to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) "Interim Final Regulations Governing Payments Under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund." The airline bailout act gave the airlines $15 billion in cash and loan guarantees and capped the airlines' liability for the September 11 crashes at the limits of their insurance coverage. Because of this cap, the damage caused by the crashes greatly exceeds the private fund available to compensate victims and their families. Thus for the vast majority of victims and families, the cap has the effect of eliminating the right that they would otherwise have to sue the airlines. Congress set up the fund to ensure that the airline bailout would not come at the expense of the victims' families. The act mandates full and fair compensation to victims and their families for their actual economic and non-economic damages. DOJ has ignored this mandate and instead has written arbitrary regulations that will result in compensation levels far below the losses actual suffered by the victims and their families. In fact, many families' total compensation from the fund and all collateral sources combined will not even fully replace lost income. In effect, these families will not receive any of the non-economic compensation required by the statute. After collateral sources are deducted, as required by the statute, some families would receive nothing from the fund under the interim final regulations. DOJ's formula allows for non-economic awards at only one-tenth the level paid incomparable cases, even though Congress explicitly enumerated a broader range of non-economic damages than could be recovered in any single jurisdiction. DOJ's formula for non-economic damages is $250,000 for the person killed and $50,000 for the spouse and each dependent. In a wide variety of air crash and terrorism cases, however, judges, juries, and mediators commonly have provided non-economic damage awards well into the seven-figure range. Independent economists have found serious flaws in DOJ's method of calculating economic damages, including use of outdated and inapplicable work life and life-cycle earnings data. DOJ greatly underestimates promotions and other increases in earnings for victims. It relies on civil service and military retirement system actuarial data that track federal worker incomes and pension requirements, not the higher-paying private sector career paths followed by the vast majority of the victims. The interim final regulations also arbitrarily cap a victim's income at $230,000 a year. Combined with the faulty methodology described above, the income cap would result in some families receiving compensation for less than 25% of their actual economic losses. Under DOJ's rules, a family's award may be increased above the "presumptive" award only by a showing of "extraordinary circumstances"--beyond those suffered by other victims or victims' families. This high burden of proof makes a charade of the right of a hearing provided by the statute. DOJ should fulfill the acts's intent by revising the rules to compensate victims and their families for the type of damages specified by Congress, at levels comparable to those provided in the tort system and the fund was designated to replace. While DOJ has shown flexibility on some aspects of the rules, it is resisting the victims' and families' requests for significant changes. If the proposed regulations are not changed significantly, victim's widow will have to sell their homes, deplete their children's college funds, and give up their plans of being full-time parents while their children are young. Many families, anticipating little relief from the fund, will decide to sue the airlines and others, despite the handicap of the liability limits. We do not believe these are the outcomes Congress intended. Please contact Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg and tell them of your concern that the interim final regulations fail to conform to the language and intent of the act. With the regulations soon to become final, I believe that only the swift and strong support of Congress can avert unnecessary financial and emotional damage. Thank you for giving this matter your immediate attention. Sincerely Yours, Individual Comment East Windsor, NJ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN002494.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, February 06, 2002 7:11 PM Mr Feinberg Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, Having just seen you interviewed along with (?) , I would like to support your views. You mentioned the public making comments on the DOJ site but I don't see them. My input is that I am disgusted with the amount of money that is being given to these families. I realize the money was raised by Paul McCartney etc as a statement that the terrorists would not succeed. This money would better have been given to Salvation Army and the Red Cross to go to those in real need. Let those agencies do the job they do so effectively and help all needy families, not only those of 9-11. I was most impressed when the country singers did a benefit for the Salvation Army , not the individual families. That makes more sense. I know how it is to lose one's spouse as I am a Navy widow. No one gave me a million dollars. No one is going to give the soldiers and sailors in this war more than the $200,000 insurance. What one has personally is another matter. I am totally disgusted by the obvious greed to get rich off 9-11. Most families are seeing dollar signs. If someone has alot of insurance , it should be deducted from whatever monies are determined before that consideration. Is it too late to ask those who raised the funds if they would agree to give the money to the Salvation Army and or Red Cross? Those agencies are spending alot of money doing a great job in the wake of this tragedy. Let them decide who needs what. This has gotten totally out of hand and shows the greed of New Yorkers, not the honor that was exhibited before the love of money entered into the picture. On Oprah, I was sickened to see a whining widow lament that she would get her husband's salary for life and that would not be enough! How disgusting can she be? Many would be glad for that. I have met widows in life whose husband's died leaving NO insurance. They were left at the poverty level. NO one gave them even $250,000, much less $1.7 million! has overstated his importance in his effort to cash in as well! DISGUSTING! Sincerely, Individual Comment VA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-02-06 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojP000431.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-02-06 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, December 07, 2001 1:07 AM WTC victims' families Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing in response to the Department's request for public comments regarding the forthcoming regulations for implementing and administering the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund. I strongly urge the Department to draft regulations that ensure compensation is available to all victims of the attack, including the committed partners and the non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims. It is unquestionable that the devastating grief and economic losses suffered by the families of gay and lesbian victims are no less than that of other families. Just as the terrorists drew no lines in choosing their victims, our country must draw no lines in compensating those who suffered the most personal of losses from these horrific attacks. Many Americans lost their lives on September 11, each of whom left behind loved ones. I urge the Department to honor these bonds by treating the families of gay and lesbian victims as you would any other. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-07 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA001254.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-07 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 13, 2001 Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 To Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families. Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those who were already well off in the first place. The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove that their union is legitimate. Fortunately, both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should do the same. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment Hawi, HI September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA003894.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, November 20, 2001 2:24 PM RE: comments regarding use of charitable contributions to defray public funding Thank you for taking comments on this important issue. I think it unconscionable that government leaders are on record asking that charitable contributions be counted against any federal support for the victims of 9.11. Cost should not be an issue since the same people are the very ones who sent $1.3 trillion mostly to those who don't need it. Shouldn't a fireman's widow be considered at least as deserving of government largesse or ? Charity should not be an issue. It's charity, given to the victim, not a credit given to the government. The recent case in New York, seeking to reduce damages assessed against a firm causing a fire at a temple, brings to mind these same arguments: namely that charity will dry up (except when it is advantageous solely for tax purposes) if it is to be counted against other sources of relief. The government should always be concerned about the effects of its actions when applied retroactively. I still haven't forgiven the government for retroactively changing the tax deductability of student loans (and other debts) incurred under one set of rules and taxed under another. The more often the government changes rules (and this action, if implemented, is unprecedented), the less often the people will have faith in it. Our president is interested in increasing charity as a means of bringing services to the needy. What better way to undermine this than to undermine the very buying power of charity. Among the fears quoted was the potential for doubling dipping. While I share the fears that some may defraud us, it makes me no less interested in accomplishing the goal: to bring relief to the needy. If this type of concern were truly valid, we would bring a halt to all government spending as they seek to rid the system of inefficiency, fraud, duplication among the armed services, farm credits given primarily to only the largest and wealthiest corporations, etc. Finally, I gave 2 $100 checks ($200 total) to 2 of the fire houses in my neighborhood. Each lost about half their men. I was happy to do it (throughout Brooklyn, people were desperate to find ways to contribute). I gave to the firehouses and to the families of those who rushed to their deaths. I did not give to the government. If the government chooses to count this contribution against the money these poor brave people will get, please refund that money (I will be happy to send you cancelled checks). If this contribution is not counted against them, I will be delighted to have contributed to those who gave their lives and left behind families who should expect nothing less from those of us who remain. Respectfully submitted Individual Comment Red Hook, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojW000438.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 14, 2001 Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 To Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families. Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those who were already well off in the first place. The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove that their union is legitimate. Fortunately, both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should do the same. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment Seattle, WA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA004690.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, December 04, 2001 4:59 PM Sept 11th, COMPENSATION OF GAY AND LESBIAN VICTIMS' FAMILIES Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing in response to the Department's request for public comments regarding the forthcoming regulations for implementing and administering the "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund." I strongly urge the Department to draft regulations that ensure compensation is available to all victims of the attack, including the committed partners and the non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims. It is unquestionable that the devastating grief and economic losses suffered by the families of gay and lesbian victims are no less than that of other families. Just as the terrorists drew no lines in choosing their victims, our country must draw no lines in compensating those who suffered the most personal of losses from these horrific attacks. Many Americans lost their lives on September 11, each of whom left behind loved ones. I urge the Department to honor these bonds by treating the families of gay and lesbian victims as you would any other. Sincerely, Individual Comment Seattle, WA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA000382.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Thursday, December 13, 2001 5:22 PM fairness Sample letter: Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 To Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families. Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those who were already well off in the first place. The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove that their union is legitimate. Fortunately, both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should do the same. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA001612.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 8, 2001 Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs, Civic Division U.S. Department of Justice Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing this in response to the Department's request for public comments regarding the forthcoming regulations for implementing and administering the "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund." I strongly urge the Department to draft regulations that ensure compensation is available to all victims of the attack, including the committed partners and the non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims. It is unquestionable that the devastating grief and economic losses suffered by the families of gay lesbian victims are no less than that of other families. Just as the terrorists drew no lines in choosing their victims, our country must draw no lines in compensating those who suffered the most personal of losses from these horrific attacks. Many Americans lost their lives on September 11, each of whom left behind loved ones. I urge the Department to honor these bonds by treating the families of gay and lesbian victims as you would any other. Sincerely, Individual Comment Watertown, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA001477.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 05, 2001 4:32 PM 9/11 Compensation Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs, Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Dear Sir: In response to the request for pubic comment on the upcoming regulations re: the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, I strongly believe that moneys must be available to all, including partners and adopted children of gay and lesbian persons. It would be unthinkable to deny any American compensation because of their personal habits or conventional views. Sincerely, Individual Comment Hector, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA000961.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Saturday, March 16, 2002 1:26 PM 9/11 Fund is unfair to gay US citizens! To whom it may concern: I have been following the progress of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, and I must say I am surprised by the lack of compassion and relief that the gay people who died in the attack. I'm sure it is quite an insult to the legacy of someone like the of the plane that was crashed, whose is dead, yet whose life-partner is being treated with less dignity and respect than life-partners of illegal aliens. I think it very unfair that the September 11th Fund is being used to discriminate and promote a religious agenda of punishment of gay people. When are you going to do the right thing and give the same compensation to every tax-paying citizen's life-partner, regardless of their sexual orientation? Individual Comment Santa Barbara, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-16 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR000910.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-16 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Monday, November 26, 2001 4:46 PM victims fund To Whom it may concern I would like to know if a person who lived with a victim and they were interdependent will be able to file a compensation claim . My loss was no different than if it was my spouse or my children. Thank You, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojW000659.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:53 AM include Gay partnership Dear Attorney General Ashcroft, The deaths on September 11th were the result of an attack on America. Please do not discriminate against the unmarried partners of September 11th victims. All unmarried partners, gay or straight, young and old and their dependents should be eligible for compensation. In a time of crisis we are not asking for special rights or recognition, but simply asking for the same fundamental rights that all Americans are entitled to. Why do you continue to exclude a certain sector of society based on religious beliefs? I thought the U.S law was above that. Thank you for your time. -- Thank you, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA000067.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 19, 2001 2:04 PM Aid for domestic partners December 19, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, and also as a active member of the Catholic church. I urge you to support equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for ALL victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. I know this is a politically charged issue, but courage to take the right stance, the most humane and compassionate stance possible, is what I urge you to do. I reiterate that I am Catholic simply to let you know that there are those of us who might on the surface appear conservative, who do not support exclusion of aid to people of any sexual orientation, provided they were dependent on a victim of the Sept. 11 attacks. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Thank you for considering my concerns. Sincerely, Individual Comment Boulder, CO September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA003366.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, March 12, 2002 11:21 PM Victims fund Dear Mr. Feinberg, I realize the difficulty of the task you have been charged with. However, after your comments on Meet the Press regarding excluding certain members of the victim community, I must question if you understand what the point of the victims fund is. Or maybe I don't understand. Victims fund = help the victims. ALL THE VICTIMS - not just certain ones. I certainly don't believe one group of victims is more deserving than the other - so I am pleased that you have decided to include those people who are/were in this country without permission. That is the right thing to do. It would also be the 'right thing to do' to include those victims with same sex or un-married partners as recipients. You mentioned that if the local state government recognized these partnerships - than you would also. In NYC - same sex partners are eligible to register as domestic partners and receive a number of benefits and protections. This IS recognition by the local government. It is also illegal to discriminate in NYC based on sexual orientation. That sounds like recognition to me. I think that you and your staff need to get a better grip on what is real. The point of the fund - again - is to help victims. Please take a stand and do what is right. Include all victims and not just the ones you feel comfortable recognizing - otherwise you are not the right person for this job. Thank you. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR000542.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 19, 2001 8:58 AM Equal Access for LGB people December 19, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment Bloomer, WI September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA002793.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-19