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A law that provides medical monitoring and treatment for Sept. 11 first responders expires at midnight Wednesday due to the failure of Congress to act. For now, first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center after the 2001 terrorist attacks, worked for weeks and now suffer from illnesses like pulmonary disease and cancers will still be able to get their health care. But federal officials who administer the program say it will face challenges by February and will have to start shutting down by next summer. (9/30)

Congress recessed without reauthorizing the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act, which covers medical care for those who became sick after working at the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. ... "We never intended for this important legislation to expire so quickly, but, once again, Washington politics got in the way," Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Peter King of New York wrote in an op-ed Wednesday in the political newspaper The Hill. The act is fully funded well into 2016, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters earlier this month that "we do plan to extend the program."(Johnson, 10/1)