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, January 21, 2002 12:19 PM (no subject) January 21, 2002 Mr. Kenneth Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs US Department of Justice Dear Mr. Zwick: I lost my only son, in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.") He worked in Tower I on the floor. I am writing to lend my voice to the other victims' families of this unprecedented attach on our great country which took the lives of so many of our loved ones - and 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." I and all the victims' families would gladly give up all compensation to have our loved ones back. However, since that is not possible, we ask only for fairness so that we may piece together our shattered lives and hopefully, be able to move on as difficult as this will be. I implore you, as our elected official, to demand changes to the interim rules issued by Mr. Feinberg, the Special Master. As it stands now Mr. Feinberg's self-imposed rules fail to satisfy the letter or the spirit of the legislation which was enacted. 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 actually 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. At the very least, there should definitely be an attractive significant minimum sum, which the family of a victim can receive by Fund participation, which would not be reduced by any "collateral source compensation." DOJ's formula allows for non-economic awards at only one-tenth the level paid in comparable cases. The presumed non-economic damages awards provided under the interim final rules are substantially lower than those paid in comparable cases. Non-economic damage awards in considerable excess of $1 million are typical for other airline crashes and terrorism cases, but in this instance, presumed non-economic damages awards are limited to $250,000 per victim and $50,000 for a spouse and each dependent. This dramatic undervaluation of presumed non-economic damages runs contrary to Congress's general intent to provide full and fair compensation and, significantly, to the specific language of the law establishing the Fund, which lists an extremely broad array of non-economic damages for which victims and their loved ones are to be compensated (regardless of what may be allowable under state law). The interim final rules can and should be fixed to increase presumed non-economic damages awards to amounts which properly reflect Congress's intent and are a more realistic assessment of the considerable pain and suffering endured by the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks and their loved ones. Independent economists have found serious flaws in DOJ's method of calculating economic damages, including use of outdated and inapplicable worklife 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 caps a victim's income at $231,000 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. Those victims, particularly from the financial sector, are specifically harmed by this limit. They were targeted precisely because of the jobs they held and where they worked - in The World Trade Center, the financial capital of the world, the embodiment of financial success. Those who achieved such success should see that reflected in their awards. They personified American business and commerce, democracy and freedom. 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 to a hearing provided by the statute. DOJ has constructed a scheme that provides extremely low awards to those who lost loved ones due to the extraordinary events of September 11 and then declares that only in cases that are extraordinary, beyond those already extraordinary events, will awards be increased. This is virtually an impossible standard to meet and leaves families skeptical as to the Special Master's final decisions. DOJ should fulfill the act's intent by revising the rules to compensate victims and their families for the types of damages specified by Congress, at levels comparable to those provided in the tort system the Fund was designed 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, victims' widows 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 nor is it what families really want to do. Additionally, before families blindly give up their right to sue, they have the right to be fully informed as to what their compensation will be. This is the American way. And lastly, but with no less importance, in many cases, parents, siblings and other family members should be assured recognition in the distribution of the awards received by the Personal Representatives. There are special circumstances in many families that do not conform with the norm. With respect to estranged next of kin parents, the surviving children and/or siblings, who alone provided love and support to the victim, should be considered as a special circumstance. Similarly, for parents, who spent their entire lives loving, nurturing and caring for their deceased child, the death of their child is the most devastating loss one can conceive of, particularly in such an unspeakably horrible act of terrorism. A vast number of these parents are now divorced, widowed or advancing in age themselves and had been assured by the victim that they would provide assistance to them. Their years of love and dediction to the victims should be acknowledged. Many parents who had worked before September 11, are unable to now because their grief is so great they are emotionally unable to perform even routine functions. Many of the victims were young, earning high incomes, married for only a short period of time, had no dependent children and did not yet have a will. These victims' intentions should be honored. This is what they would surely have wanted. In these cases, awards should not only be received by the "legal next of kin". Parents, siblings and other family members endured unbearable losses that will never by replaced. They were also dependent upon the victims for love, companionship and support (either present or future). 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. Most sincerely, Individual Comment New York, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-21 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 dojN002163.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. 2002-01-21