New Reports Reveal Surviving Spouses and Children of 9/11 Victims Would Wait Over a Century to Be Made Whole Under Current Federal Fund

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 22, 2026 - With the 25^th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks this year, two new reports released today reveal that surviving spouses and children of those killed on 9/11 remain systematically undercompensated by the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism (USVSST) Fund.

The reports, commissioned by Kristen Breitweiser, Marie Halloran, and Patricia Ryan, three widows who lost their husbands in the attacks on the World Trade Center, found that surviving widows and children are receiving between 33% and 74% less per distribution round than other victims in the same federal program.

The analyses come from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, an elite law firm, and Edgeworth Economics, a top economic consultancy. They have prepared a legal analysis and a companion empirical analysis for the widows and their families pro bono to trace how eligibility exclusions, flawed funding splits, and incomplete legislative fixes have compounded into a structural inequity that will leave certain 9/11 families permanently undercompensated when the Fund expires in 2039.

The full Edgeworth report can be found here, and the full Akin report can be found here.

Breitweiser, Halloran and Ryan along with other 9/11 families are calling on Congress to act to fix this disparity before the 25^th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks this September. The reports include recommendations for legislative reforms and catch-up payments to bring 9/11 claimants to parity with other terrorism victims in the Fund. In particular, these reforms would bring the spouses and children who were excluded from the Fund's first two rounds (including Patricia's and Kristen's families) to parity with claimants who were included from the start.

"We lost our husbands and our children lost their fathers on September 11. And for twenty-five years, we have watched a system that was supposed to treat all victims of terrorism equally dismiss our families at every turn. We were shut out of the Fund's first two rounds of payments. The catch-up Congress authorized did not catch us up. And every year since, the gap has grown wider," stated Breitweiser.

"Our analysis clearly shows that surviving spouses and children of 9/11 victims, families including Kristen, Marie and Patty's, have been disadvantaged in repayment at nearly every stage of this Fund's history. The result is a compounding disparity that grows wider with each distribution round and will continue to do so without addressing the structure of how surviving spouses and children are compensated," said Matt Milner, Partner, Edgeworth Economics. "At current funding levels - and even if the Fund were extended indefinitely - it would take over a century for 9/11 claimants to be made whole.

The data shows a system that has consistently paid 9/11 families at a fraction of what other terrorism victims receive in the same program. Drawing on U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) data, the Edgeworth analysis finds:

• 9/11 claimants have received 4% of their $86.3 billion in eligible claims to date, compared to 15.1% for non-9/11 claimants.
• In the most recent distribution (January 2026), 9/11 claimants received 64% of eligible claims, while non-9/11 claimants received 5.24%.
• Spouses and children excluded from the Fund's first two rounds received a 9% catch-up payment - far short of the 17.9% paid to claimants admitted from the start, leaving a 12-point percentage gap.

The companion Akin Gump analysis traces the legislative history that produced these inequities, including the Fund's original eligibility restrictions through the 2019 Clarification Act's 50/50 bifurcation of distributions, to the 2022 Fairness for 9/11 Families Act's incomplete catch-up payments.

"The USVSST Fund was built on a simple principle: that American victims of state-sponsored terrorism should be compensated equitably. But a combination of early eligibility exclusions, a bifurcated funding formula, and incomplete corrective legislation has produced an outcome for surviving spouses and children that is fundamentally at odds with that principle," said Rita Heimes, Senior Counsel, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. "As shown in our report and Edgeworth's, the question now is whether that will be corrected, or whether it will be allowed to compound into a permanent inequity."

Breitweiser, Halloran and Ryan are seeking to right this wrong for their and other similar situated 9/11 families. They are asking for several potential legislative remedies as starting points for reform:

• Ending the Fund's 50/50 bifurcation structure to restore pro rata distribution across all claimants;
• Mandating an additional round of catch-up payments for spouses and children excluded from the Fund's first two rounds to bring them to parity with other claimants; and
• Requiring DOJ reporting and Fund oversight hearings to increase transparency.

"Our children are grown adults now - many raising children of their own. They should not have to spend the rest of their lives waiting for a promise Congress made and then broke," said Halloran whose husband, Vince, was a Lieutenant in the FDNY and left behind six children whom she was left to raise alone. "While the country chants 'Never Forget,' we have been forgotten, left behind, taken advantage of, and profited from for twenty-five years. They must deliver on that promise before the 25th anniversary of the day that changed America and shattered our families forever."

About Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Akin is an elite law firm, future-focused and dedicated to excellence, that helps clients anticipate what is next and navigate a path to success.

About Edgeworth Economics

Edgeworth Economics is an economic and quantitative consulting firm that provides economic analysis and expert testimony for clients facing complex litigation, as well as regulatory and other challenges, in the areas of antitrust, class certification, consumer protection, intellectual property, and labor and employment. Edgeworth's expert economists, statisticians, data analysts, and other professionals assist clients with innovative solutions rooted in the rigorous application of economic principles and hard data. Organizations including leading law firms, Fortune 500 companies, and government agencies rely on Edgeworth Economics to help them navigate through their most critical legal disputes and challenges.

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