In the smoking aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, thousands of rescuers and other workers converged on Ground Zero to begin the daunting task of searching for survivors, identifying potential hazards and cleaning up the charred rubble of what once had been two of the world’s largest skyscrapers. Those workers were faced with a hellish scene that is almost impossible to imagine, and in appreciation the federal government allocated $175 million in funds to cover workers compensation costs.

Now, with 9/11 fading into memory, the government wants to take the money back.

Under President Bush’s proposed 2006 budget, the government will welsh on it’s promise to the workers, reclaiming $125 million that was committed to help them recover from 9/11 injuries. These were the people who, not long ago, were rightly referred to as heroes. But as the country’s attention has shifted elsewhere, these heroes have found themselves on the receiving end of numerous insults, of which the 2006 budget is only the latest one.

First of all, there was the EPA’s false statements about the air quality at Ground Zero. In the days after the towers’ collapse, the agency claimed that the air was safe to breathe, a conclusion that had no basis in fact; almost a year-and-a-half later, it was finally revealed that the air had a “cancer risk level 100 times greater than what it [the EPA] normally considers acceptable for public exposure to toxic contaminants.” The effects of this toxic environment will be felt by the workers for years to come.

For the workers who have suffered 9/11-related injuries or ailments, they have found it difficult to access any of the money earmarked toward their treatment. The Injured Workers Pharmacy, which provides medicine to injured workers while their compensation claims are processed, estimates that 9/11 workers are a shocking 10 times more likely to have their claims disputed. Some of these claims have been held up for years, with little relief in sight:

“Our patients can’t get medicine, they can’t get diagnostic tests, they’re getting horrible runarounds to the point where even the I.W.P. is saying they can’t continue to help them,” said Dr. Stephen Levin, who has been treating rescue workers at Mount Sinai.

So on top of all this, the government plans to take back the rest of the money that had been promised. Their reasoning is that, since the state of New York has only managed to spend $50 million so far, there’s no need for any additional money for the 9/11 workers. But while a case could be made that New York has done a poor job of managing the money, to take it away would be remarkably short-sighted.

But yesterday, lawmakers called on the White House to withdraw its proposal, saying the money was still badly needed by ground zero workers who are fighting for lost wages and facing the prospect of long-term health problems that doctors are only beginning to understand.

In 2004, for example, a study at Mount Sinai Hospital looked at 12,000 rescue workers and found that roughly half would need continued treatment for respiratory problems and psychological issues as a result of their work at ground zero

We are still less than four years away from the events of September 11, 2001. We shouldn’t be so quick to forget the people who sacrificed their health to help clean up the wreckage.