Top House chairman warns Congress against ‘complacency’ 25 years after 9/11

Andrew Garbarino, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has used the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks to warn that Congress must act on threats before they materialise rather than only after tragedy strikes. The New York congressman, who was a high school senior when the attacks unfolded, said the failures of 2001 stemmed largely from intelligence agencies operating in silos and failing to share information, and he wants lawmakers to break that "reactive" habit to prevent another attack of similar scale.

Garbarino, who represents Long Island's south shore and oversees the department created in response to 9/11, said his constituents still carry the "scar" of losing loved ones that day, and that more people have now died from 9/11-related illnesses, including cancers among first responders, than were killed in the attacks themselves. He noted that firefighters who were in their early twenties when they responded are now in their late forties and only just falling ill, and pointed to legislation signed by President Trump earlier this year to address a funding shortfall in the World Trade Center Health Program, which he said supports people in nearly every congressional district across the country.