NY Reps: Give 9/11 Victims bin Laden Reward Money

If no one is going to collect the federal government's Osama bin Laden reward money, two New York congressmen want bin Laden's victims to get it. “If the bounty isn’t paid," then “families and groups who helped deal with survivors of 9/11” should benefit, said Rep. Anthony Weiner at a Ground Zero press conference yesterday. Weiner and fellow Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler introduced a bill that would direct the reward to groups supporting 9/11 first responders, survivors, and family members of victims.

Nadler said that the reward money “was allocated for 9/11 victims in effect, and this is simply saying use it more effectively for the purpose that it was set up in the first place.” Though the State Department's reward is $25 million, the total bounty could be as much as $50 million thanks to a bill passed by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2004, Politico reports. Click to read why the reward money may not go to anyone. (More Rewards for Justice stories.)