Legal experts say the Mamdani administration’s decision to settle two lawsuits against New York City by releasing thousands of documents showing what officials knew about toxins released by the 9/11 attacks is poised to expand the number of people covered by federal benefit programs — but is unlikely to trigger a flood of new claims against the city.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration’s creation of a public portal to allow people to search 170,000 records related to the attacks was the product of perseverance by advocates, “through mayoral administration after mayoral administration after mayoral administration after mayoral administration.”
He did not cite each of his four predecessors, Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, by name. But he stressed the significance of this step.
“Administration after administration has ignored those calling for answers and clarity, instead choosing to bury them in legal arguments and in red tape,” Mamdani said Tuesday. “We will do no such thing.”
The two lawsuits were filed by 9/11 Health Watch, a 501(c)3 nonprofit set up to advocate for survivors of the terror attacks. The group has spent two decades fighting for compensation for 9/11 victims and their families and health benefits for survivors sickened in the attack’s aftermath. After decades of seeking information from the city about what it knew, the group filed lawsuits in 2023 and 2026 to force the city to release records showing how it responded to the terror attacks.
As part of a settlement agreement, the city established the documents portal, which includes air quality test records, and has also agreed to publish more records once they are reviewed and personal information is redacted.
City officials said they were making the records public because they believed it was the right thing to do.
“ If you’re in City Hall and afraid of taking action because somebody’s going to bring a lawsuit, you’re probably not gonna take the action that needs to be taken,” said Steven Banks, the city’s corporation counsel. He later added, “ Could there be lawsuits relating to the release of the documents? Sure, but that’s not a reason not to release the documents.”
Lawyers who have prosecuted cases on behalf of 9/11 victims say the city’s risk of future liability claims is relatively low because the existing federal compensation programs are only available to people who agree not to pursue new lawsuits. If anything, experts said, the information could help ensure more people receive the benefits they are entitled to.
“Even if there was a lawsuit down the road,” said attorney Robert Grochow, whose firm has been representing 9/11 victims since 2002 in cases over the toxic air conditions, “I don’t know if that’s going to change the landscape of people getting compensated for their illnesses.”
Attorney Michael Barasch agreed.
“ I applaud this particular administration for doing something that three prior administrations didn’t have the guts to do,” said Barasch, who has represented thousands of clients in separate 9/11 related cases, “which was to make public the health records and the air sample records that should’ve been made public right away.”
“ On the other hand, they don’t confirm anything new,” Barasch said. “We’ve known all along that the air was unsafe.”
Barasch represented NYPD Detective James Zadroga, whose 2006 death from pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 34 was the first to be attributed to rescue and recovery operations after the terror attacks.
Zadroga became the namesake for federal legislation fought for by advocates for 9/11 survivors that established benefit programs for people who were within certain geographical boundaries of the attack. Federal lawmakers adopted the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act in 2010, which was reauthorized in 2015 and 2019 with programs funded through 2090.
The Act established the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, which is available to people who have a connection to one of the three sites where hijackers crashed planes during the 9/11 attacks and the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides health care benefits to people with certain health conditions that were in proximity to the attack sites. The VCF was set up as a “no-fault alternative to lawsuits.”
Currently, 71,000 people have received benefits from the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and 145,000 people are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, according to the latest statistics. Those figures represent a small percentage of the some 410,000 people who were potentially exposed to the toxins, according to a 2008 study published in the Journal of Urban Health estimated that some.
The new document release could help more people realize that they may also qualify for these programs.
“It’s not that more people may be eligible — more people are eligible,” Mamdani said. “We know that more people are eligible than those that are currently enrolled.”
In New York City, the geographical boundaries that determine who qualifies for the two federal programs vary slightly and may be subject to future legislative scrutiny. The 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund is limited to people who were in Manhattan south of Canal Street between the day of the attacks through May 30, 2002.
The World Trade Center Health Program is available to people who were as far north as Houston Street and in parts of Brooklyn Heights where smoke and debris floated across the East River. The timeframe for eligibility is also longer, extending to July 31, 2002.
Lawmakers who helped establish the programs have acknowledged that the new documents released by the city may show that people who lived outside the boundaries were also subject to toxic exposures.
“ When we wrote the legislation, we had to make arbitrary limits,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler said of the federal programs during Tuesday’s City Hall press conference. He said lawmakers were forced to create initial boundaries of the program based on the amount of money available for the programs at the time. “This is a problem that we’re going to need to deal with somehow.”
Barasch said he’s eager to see what these new records say about how far the toxic exposure really extended, “ because that would give us some ammunition to go back and lobby to extend the geographical boundaries of both the [WTC] Health Program and the Victim Compensation Fund.”
Ben Chevat, the executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, said Gov. Kathy Hochul could release similar sets of records that are being held at the state level. Many of the records the city generated in the aftermath of the attacks would have also been shared with the state.
“So there’s a record somewhere,” Chevat said.
“The Governor believes New Yorkers deserve transparent access to 9/11 health data. The state will review any requests for similar documents and will release all relevant information to the public,” Kara Cumoletti, a spokesperson for Hochul, said in a statement.
Clarification: This story was updated with information clarifying what the Mamdani administration said about how records had not been released under previous mayoral administrations.