# What the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act Does

This bill makes several changes to the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical care to first responders and survivors of the September 11 attacks. The main goal is to improve how the program operates and ensure it has enough money to serve people for decades to come.

The bill expands who can evaluate and certify mental health conditions for 9/11 responders and survivors. Currently, only doctors can make these determinations, but the bill allows other licensed mental health providers—like psychologists, counselors, and social workers—to conduct initial evaluations and make eligibility decisions for mental health issues. This should make it easier and faster for people to get certified and access mental health care, since there are more mental health professionals available than just physicians. The program administrator has six months to decide which types of mental health providers can do this work.

On the funding side, the bill provides a significant boost to keep the program running through 2090. It adds nearly $3 billion to the program's special fund and changes how future funding is calculated. Starting in 2035, the program's annual budget will automatically increase by 5 percent each year, adjusted based on how many people are enrolled. This protects the program from running out of money as more people develop health conditions related to their 9/11 exposure over time. The bill also clarifies that deceased responders and survivors shouldn't be counted when calculating enrollment numbers, which affects how funding is distributed.

Additionally, the bill makes smaller operational improvements: it gives the program administrator more time (180 days instead of 90 days) to add new health conditions to the list of covered illnesses, removes some outdated credentialing requirements for healthcare providers in the nationwide network, and consolidates leftover money from separate program funds into the main fund so nothing goes unused.