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 8, 2002 To: Kenneth L. Zwick Director, office of Management Programs Civil Division, USDOJ Re: September 11th Victims Compensation Fund of 2001 Dear Sir: I have reviewd the USDOJ's interim final rules for the September fund of 2001 and have the following comments: 1. The intent of the fund is not only to minimize the pain for survivors and the loved ones of those lost, but to reduce the cost and pain to our society that would result from lengthy litigation in a public forum. I feel the USDOJ failed to meet these goals of the victim's fund. This has become obvious to anyone involved since as of January 7th only 100 people have filed claims. The most troubling aspect of the final rules is that it minimizes every life lost or person injured in this terrorist attack. Never in the history of our country have we experienced such a horrific act of murder and terrorism on our soil. To suggest that the emotional loss, pain and suffering could be compared to anything we every experienced before is absurd and desecrates the memory of those who died in this attack. The government has an obligation to these citizens and their families to acknowledge this pain, which was caused by our governments failure to act on known weaknesses in our country's security. Though the fund will not pass judgement on who is to blame, the Special Master, Congress and the President know in their hearts, the government failed to protect its citizens. The amount of $250,000 for these people's lives is disgraceful. People who sue for car accidents in wich a person did not even intentionally get hurt or kill someone reciever far more for pain and suffering. How can this be the case? The special master said that he can not and will not playy Solomon, yet inserting such an arbitrary number he is doing just that. I urge that this number be increased to at least $500,000 and not be subject to offsets. The collateral offsets should only be applied to economic losses, since the collateral offsets established in the Air Transportation Safety Act are monies that are designed soley to support families economically not to east their pain and suffering. 2. The USDOJ needs to provide exact details of what constitutes collateral sources. As the rules currently stand there is too much uncertainty for a person to waive their right to sue. The government must eliminate this uncertainty, so that when a person calculates their claims value, they can be almost 100% certain of the amount they would receiver before waiving their right to sue. As i stated in my first response to the USDOJ, improper awards will lead to a public outcry since claimants will have waived their right to sue and can not appeal their award. This would lead to claimants feeling that not only did the Federal Government fail them on September 11th, but also thay mislead them and duped them into an unfair settlement. The plan as it is currently set up has already tled to public outcries and a minimal number of people have filed fo rclaims under the plan. This alone should make it clear to the USDOJ that the plan they ahve set up is inadequate and lacks the compassion it so needs. 3. I am strongly opposed to any offsets from collateral sources such as insurance that would be due a decedent's estate under normal circumstances. The status specifically states that. "The Special Master shall reduce the amount of compensation determined (under paragraph(1)(B)(ii) by the amount of collateral source compensation the claimant has received or is entitled to receive as a result of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11th, 2001". I believe the statutes wording supports my claim that all funds paid as a result of death not specifically related to the September 11th terrorist attacks are not part of the collateral offset. The USDOJ policy takes funds from the injured party and in affect give it to the government who itself must bear some responsibility for the claimants injuries or deaths because it did not provide proper airline security laws as confirmed by the hasty passage of the airline safety act. Reducing awards for life insurance that a decendant purchased to protect their family and estate under the assumption of normal death not soley because of the terrorist attack of September 11th should not be considered a collateral source under the strict wording of the statute. I believe that offsets for workman's compensation death benefits and other death benefits paid specifically as a result of the attack are reasonable offers. 4. The statute specifically states that pension funds are to be considered collateral source. The IRS specifically defines a pension plan as a defined benefit planthat typically pays a fixed income to a person( see attatched page with definition from IRS publication 575). The company and not the individual fund these funds. Many people have 401k plans which the IRS defines as a defined contribution plan. These plans are provided by the employer but ate significantly if not entirely funded by the individual. Therefore, I submit that accordingly 401k funds as well as IRA's and individual annuitites are not to be considered collateral sources in accordance with the government's pwm definition of these funds. 5. I strongly support the USDOJ's belief that claims should be proced without economic experts. However as the rules currently are set up this is not possible. Therefore to accomplish this task the USDOJ must establish a set of simple formulas for determining economic compensation and spell out the exact offsets a claim would have held against it that can be open for interpretation. I feel strongly that this be done so a claimant is not ask to waive their right to sue without knowing the exact amount compensation they could expect as a minimum. 6. New York State Attorney General Wlliot Spitzer said, it is wrong to demand that families waive their right to sue before they are told what they will ultimately reciever from their claim. I agree with teh Attorney General, which is why I propose that the plan allow claimants to file their claims and request an award determination. If the claimant would like to accept the awared as sdetermined they must waive their righ to sue. If the claimant disagrees with the award determination, it can be applealed as stated in the proposed rules. However, in order to appeal the award determination they must waive their right to sue since they have a guaranteed minimum award. I believe my proposal is fair and equitable and meets the requirements of the statute. I also feel it would cause no additional burden or delays to the plan. It simply changes the point in the process at which the waiving of the rights to sue is done. I strongly believe that the USDOJ needs modify the current rules. I believe my suggestions in this letter are fair to claimants, provide a strong incentive to avoid litigation, encourage the use of Victims compensation Fund and conform to all the rules set out in the statute. I would welcome an opportunity to discuss my comments with Mr. Feinberg. If Mr. Feingberg feels this would be constructive, please contact me at the number below. Sincerely Individual Comment Kings Park, NY GENERAL INFORMATION Some of the terms used in this publication are defined in the following paragraphs. A pension is generally a serious of definitaly determinable payments made to you after you retire from work. Pension payments are made regularly and ar ebased on certain factors, such as years of service with your employer or your prior compensation. --> A 401k is not a pension September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-08 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 dojN001892.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. 2002-01-08