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‘Feels like yesterday’: 9/11 victim’s daughter says families still fighting for justice 25 years later

‘Feels like yesterday’: 9/11 victim’s daughter says families still fighting for justice 25 years later

DALLAS – Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Angela Mistrulli said, “It feels like forever, but it also feels like yesterday.” Mistrulli, whose father was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City, is the founder of American Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism (AVSSTU), which represents victims and families impacted by terrorist attacks. She spoke with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the Republican midterm convention, where she and other 9/11 family members, Gold Star families, and families of civilian victims were pressing to meet with political leaders on an urgent mission as the clock ticked towards a critical deadline. BROOKLYN TEACHERS WHO WITNESSED 9/11 AS CHILDREN REVEAL WHAT THEY WANT THE NEXT GENERATION TO REMEMBER “Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST Fund). It was supposed to be a place for all victims to be able to go and receive some sort of relief. It was a lifeline to over 22,000 victims,” Mistrulli explained. “Unfortunately, that fund has run dry, and September 30th is the fiscal deadline for Congress to act in order for victims to receive relief.” Established in 2015, the USVSST Fund has provided over $10 billion to victims harmed by international state-sponsored terrorism, including personal representatives for those who lost their lives from acts of terrorism such as the 9/11 attacks. Mistrulli emphasized that 25 years after the 9/11 attacks, “We are still fighting for justice, transparency, recognition, and relief that Congress promised us.” “We’re here not only to memorialize the 25th anniversary of 9/11, but also to try to get some face time with these leaders and these higher ups to be able to discuss this urgent and critical topic,” she added. 9/11 MUSEUM UNVEILS EXHIBITION FOR GENERATION TOO YOUNG TO REMEMBER THE ATTACKS: ‘CALLED EVERYBODY TO LEAD’ With the fiscal-year cutoff approaching Sept. 30, Congress would need to authorize additional funding for victims holding unpaid terrorism judgments to be paid. A bipartisan group of lawmakers from New York introduced a bill in July that would require the U.S. Department of the Treasury to loan $3 billion annually to the fund for fiscal years 2027, 2028 and 2029. The bill, H.R. 9795, was named after Mistrulli’s father — the Never Forget the Victims of Terrorism: Joseph D. Mistrulli and Alan Kleinberg USVSST Fund Solvency Act. The Department of Justice has acknowledged that available USVSST funds remain insufficient to fully compensate victims’ claims that have been and are anticipated to continue to grow. Mistrulli and members of the AVSSTU are at the Republican midterm convention to push to influence members of Congress in voting to authorize continued funding for victims as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks concludes the week of convention activities in Dallas. GEORGE BUSH WELCOMES TOP OFFICIALS TO HIS HOME STATE FOR 9/11 REMEMBRANCE ON 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATTACKS “This is a hard one this year. 25 years. It feels like forever, but it also feels like yesterday, and it’s also disappointing because I feel like our country has come so far away from who we were on September 12th,” Mistrulli said. “It’s also exhausting that it’s been 25 years of us fighting for justice.” “We have now been divided as a nation and my wish to everyone out there as we commemorate this anniversary, memorialize, never forget by coming back together.”

‘Their souls are in that steel’: 9/11 beam makes emotional stop in Indianapolis before return to NYC

‘Their souls are in that steel’: 9/11 beam makes emotional stop in Indianapolis before return to NYC

A 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower arrived in Indianapolis last month as part of a nationwide tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a tribute that will ultimately end up back at Ground Zero. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation brought its “Steel Across America” tour to the Indiana War Memorial and Museum on Aug. 19, marking the tour’s 31st stop. The beam is traveling more than 10,500 miles through 21 states and Washington, D.C., before returning to New York City for a Sept. 11 commemoration. The piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero in the days after the attacks by first responders who rushed to the site has since become a symbol of the nearly 3,000 civilians, firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and military personnel who died that day. “For the past four months, communities across the country have welcomed this sacred piece of American history with incredible emotion,” Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO Frank Siller said in a press release. “Watching people stand in front of that steel, hugging it, praying over it, weeping, reminds me every single day of why we do this work.” TUNNEL TO TOWERS ANNOUNCES ‘STEEL ACROSS AMERICA’ TOUR TO MARK 25 YEARS SINCE 9/11 ATTACKS The Indianapolis ceremony included a color guard, a pipes and drums procession, the national anthem performed by the Voices of the Indianapolis Fire Department and an invocation from Indianapolis Fire Department Chaplain Mike Gatliff. Indianapolis Fire Division Chief Tom Neal and Timothy Winslow, a retired major general and executive director of the Indiana War Memorial and Museum, also addressed the crowd about the connection between the city’s first responders, veterans and the legacy of 9/11. FIRST RESPONDERS HONOR WORLD TRADE CENTER BEAM ARRIVING AT BOSTON FALLEN HEROES MEMORIAL “Bringing this steel to Indianapolis, and to a museum that has stood for over a century as a tribute to American sacrifice, is deeply moving,” FDNY Lt. Jack Kielty, a Tunnel to Towers board member, said. “Indiana veterans and first responders understand what it means to serve.” The event also highlighted Indiana’s own connection to the attacks. Nine Hoosiers died on Sept. 11, while Indianapolis Task Force One sent rescuers to Ground Zero. Six members of the team later died from illnesses linked to their work in the toxic environment, according to the Indiana War Memorial. Scott Nokes, a Marine Corps veteran and Tunnel to Towers recipient, spoke to attendees about the significance of allowing people to see the steel in person. “Out of the 2,977 lives that were lost, there’s over 1,000 bodies that were never recovered specifically from Ground Zero in New York,” Nokes said. “Their souls are in that steel, and if you touch it, you feel it.” The foundation’s tour is designed in part to connect younger Americans with an event that many were too young to remember or were not alive to witness. Nokes said seeing the artifact firsthand offers a connection that cannot be replicated by books or documentaries. The Indianapolis stop was followed by an appearance at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. The tour’s final stops include West Point, Boston and Washington, D.C., before the steel returns to New York City. When the steel returns to New York City on Sept. 11, Frank Siller and members of the Siller family will carry it through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, retracing the route Stephen Siller took 25 years earlier after strapping 60 pounds of gear to his back and running toward the World Trade Center. The steel will accompany the procession through the tunnel but will not enter or stop at the World Trade Center site.

Top House chairman warns Congress against ‘complacency’ 25 years after 9/11

Top House chairman warns Congress against ‘complacency’ 25 years after 9/11

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. “I was a senior in high school. I was in Mr. Ponzi’s government class. And that’s when the first plane hit. And one of the other teachers came in and was telling Mr. Ponzi about it,” he told Fox News Digital. “We all thought it was a little plane. And then we went to the next class. And then the second plane hit, and everybody realized that stuff was wrong.” Twenty-five years later, Garbarino leads a congressional committee that oversees a Cabinet department created explicitly after the terror attack. He’s warning that Congress needs to change how it deals with potential threats to avoid another tragedy of that scale. “Being chairman of the committee, being a New Yorker, it’s one of those things you focus on, and you want to make sure another 9/11 doesn’t happen, and doesn’t ever happen again. And that’s my goal. That’s my priority,” he said. 9/11 IS BECOMING HISTORY. MY GENERATION MUST MAKE SURE AMERICA NEVER FORGETS “Congress is very good at being reactive… We don’t want another 9/11. So if I could leave my fingerprints on something here, it’s the fact that the focus, Congress’ focus on national security, Congress’ focus on homeland security or safety, is that we address an issue before something happens.” HOW 9/11 TRANSFORMED SYNAGOGUE SECURITY INTO A NEW REALITY FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY He said Congress needed to get into the habit of passing laws ahead of time, “instead of being like, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe this happened, how did this happen, let’s fix it now.’” “That’s why 9/11 happened. 9/11 happened because our intelligence agencies, they were siloed, they were not sharing information. I don’t know if it was a complacency or whatever, but there were a lot of problems,” Garbarino said. “I don’t want to fall into that same complacency.” Garbarino represents New York’s 2nd Congressional District, part of Long Island’s south shore. As a suburb of New York City, its residents are deeply attuned to that tragedy 25 years ago. “We have people that lost loved ones that day that are still dealing with it 25 years later,” Garbarino said. “So the scar is still there.” His district and others are also still dealing with illnesses stemming from that day, including first responders who bravely rushed to the collapsing twin towers. “There are now more people that have died from 9/11-related illnesses than died on the actual day. So it’s a day that keeps taking people away from us,” Garbarino said. “You have firemen who, 9/11 was their first call. They were 21, 22 years old. They’re now 47… And a lot of these, some of these cancers, they take a while to take hold, and they’re now just getting sick.” SCIENTISTS DISCOVER POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN 9/11 AND ACCELERATED AGING Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed legislation led by Garbarino and others to address a projected funding shortfall for the World Trade Center Health Program, which helps survivors pay for their medical treatment. He said nearly all congressional districts across the country have at least one person participating in the program, a testament to how widespread the tragedy’s effects are. “People moved out of New York, people who came from all over the country after 9/11 to help, they all went back home, they also got sick. So this does affect the entire country,” Garbarino said.