Deal Reached On 9/11 Health Care Bill

After months of negotiations, painful years of waiting and tense final hours, will be passed in the Senate, New York's congressional delegation announced.

"The Senate recognized that 9/11 was not just an attack on New York but an attack on America, and that those who responded and died or succumbed to illness afterward did so in service to the Nation," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said in a written statement.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement on Wednesday that after negotiating with Republicans, proponents of the bill that will create a $6 billion fund for Sept. 11 first responders had reached an agreement.

"The Christmas Miracle we've been looking for has arrived. Over the last 24 hours, our Republican colleagues have negotiated in good-faith to forge a workable final package that will protect the health of the men and women who selflessly answered our nation's call in her hour of greatest need," Gillibrand said in a statement.

The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in September, will have to go back to the lower chamber of Congress to reconcile some changes before it can be moved to the presidents desk for a signature.

In recent days, more and more politicians and dominant figures in the history of the attacks have come out in favor of the bill's passage.