We should have set up the 911 relief as a vluntary find.
Now we have a big problem.
Oklahoma Bomb Victims Seek Sept. 11-Style Payout
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A group of Oklahoma City bombing survivors and relatives of those killed launched a petition on Saturday asking Congress to give them the same multibillion dollar financial aid as those harmed in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

A group representing about 10 percent of the roughly 1,500 survivors and heirs of the April 1995 anti-government truck bombing that killed 168 people and gutted a federal office building asked visitors to the bombing memorial to sign the petition.

"There are so many victims from this that have major medical bills and will from now on," said Kathy Youngblood, co-director of the group Victims of Terrorism Information and Vital Exchange Services, which says it has about 160 members.

Youngblood, whose husband John died in the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, said Oklahoma City victims were being forgotten in the face of the massive Sept. 11 attacks.

"We're going to have to fight for ourselves because no one else will," she said.

The petition asks Oklahoma's congressional delegation to press for aid equivalent to a package approved by Congress last year that will award an average of $1.85 million to the relatives of each Sept. 11 victim. The government has estimated the fund could total about $6 billion.

About 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Sept. 11 compensation program was part of an airline assistance package approved by Congress. By taking part in the program, families of victims give up their right to sue and seek damages from any defendants, such as the airlines.

There was no comparable federal aid for Oklahoma City victims. Timothy McVeigh was executed last year for planting the truck bomb out of anger at the government.

Oklahoma City victims did get tax relief under a bill signed by President George W. Bush in January to help them as well as victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent anthrax postal attacks.

That bill freed Oklahoma City victims from federal income tax for 1994 and 1995 if they lost a family member in the blast.

But some Oklahoma City survivors and victims' relatives have said the aid was not enough or came too late. Others who were injured but did not lose a family member in the blast said it would not help them.