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 06, 2001 4:32 PM Proposed Regs I have read the Act and believe that there are numerous administrative problems as it is now written. These problems do not include the far more potentially serious situations that may develop if indeed there are further acts of terrorism. How will potential future victims be compensated? As to the current problems; as an administrative trust officer I know all too clearly the potential for not getting all the truth in an attempt to receive "discretionary" funds. By putting any time constraints on any investigative attempts is inviting a real attempt at fraud. While there should be some relief given to victims and their families for immediate needs, there needs to be a longer period for determining final payment amounts. Additionally, these final awards should not be determined by a single individual, but instead should be determined by a committee of individuals not to exceed five. Any larger group is also inviting a non-efficient working atmosphere. I also believe that the government needs to consider what awards (if any) individuals will receive from charitable sources. This information will also take considerable time to collect, particularly when you consider that these charitable groups themselves are largely ill equipped to remit funds currently. In the alternative, the government should have a program in place to advise the charitable entities of any funds which have been (or will be) paid to an individual/survivor/estate. I would suggest that a possible remedy would be to register funds paid to any claimant (subject to a maximum amount to be determined) prior to a determination of a final amount. These funds would effectively be treated as interest free loans prior to a final payment. Any funds extended which subsequently were found to be inappropriate, would be subject to repayment (and if necessary wage garnishment, etc.). There also needs to be established just who the proper beneficiary is. A child who lost a parent should quite possibly have funds paid to a third party who cannot spend any funds inapproprately. A payment directly to a surviving parent/guardian unfortunately does not guarantee that the future financial needs (college, etc.) of an orphaned child will be met. The purpose of this writing, therefor, is to suggest that only an "immediate critical needs payment vehicle" be established at the current time. This vehicle also needs to be in the form of a loan until the final restitution circumstances are determined. There also needs to be established a clear set of guidelines for payment, maximum payment amount(s), appropriate beneficiaries/administrators (non-governmental personnel and regulations - the private sector can handle these duties), and co-ordinated programs with the private/charitable organizations among I suspect many others. I believe that this temporary vehicle satisfies the intent of the Act, while allowing development of long-term efficient guidelines. Individual Comment Madison, NJ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-06 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 dojW000131.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. 2001-11-06