September 11th Victim Compensation Fund

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The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was created by an act of congress shortly after 9/11 to compensate the victims of the attack. Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft to be Special Master of the fund. He worked for thirty three months entirely pro bono. He developed the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the program.

It was up to Feinberg to make the decisions on how much each family of a 9/11 victim would receive. Feinberg had to estimate how much each victim would have earned in a full lifetime. If a family accepted the offer, it was not possible to appeal. Families unhappy with the offer were able to appeal in a nonadversarial, informal hearing to present their case however they wanted. Feinberg personally presided over more than 900 of the 1,600 hearings. At the end of the process $7 billion was awarded to 97% of the families.

In response to Hurricane Katrina, African-American leaders including Jesse Jackson and Marc Morial of the National Urban League have called for the creation of a similar compensation fund.

"Within days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed and the president signed legislation authorizing a 9/11 victims compensation fund, which eventually provided more than $7 billion in compensation for the victims of 9/11," Morial said in a press release[[1]]. "As it did then, Congress must take immediate and decisive action to begin compensating American citizens whose lives have been disrupted by this major national tragedy."