Zadroga Act (James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act)

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, usually called the Zadroga Act, is named for a New York police detective who died after working at Ground Zero. It set up free medical monitoring and treatment through the World Trade Center Health Program and, in Title II, reactivated the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) to pay people who became sick from the dust and debris.

President Obama signed the Zadroga Act on January 2, 2011, and the reactivated VCF opened in October 2011 with a five-year window. Congress reauthorized it on December 18, 2015, extending claims to December 18, 2020. Then, on July 29, 2019, the Never Forget the Heroes Act permanently authorized the fund and pushed the claim filing deadline to October 1, 2090.

The law covers responders, recovery and cleanup workers, and people who lived, worked, or went to school in the New York City exposure zone, as well as people at the Pentagon and Shanksville sites. Eligible conditions include many cancers and respiratory illnesses certified by the WTC Health Program.

The VCF is not a lawsuit or a class action. It is a government compensation program, and accepting an award means giving up the right to sue over the same harm. There are also registration deadlines separate from the 2090 claim deadline, so people who were recently diagnosed should check the rules on the official VCF site rather than wait. Our page on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund explains who qualifies and how the process works.