WASHINGTON – President Bush yesterday met with families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center and signed a law that shields them from federal taxes for two years.
“The government cannot take away your pain and sorrow. But it can bring the killers to justice . . . and can help remove some of the financial obligations it imposes to ease your burdens,” Bush said in a ceremony in the White House East Room.
Diane Egan, a Staten Island nurse whose husband, Capt. Martin Egan of Ladder 118, died in the World Trade Center, said she could use the tax relief – but could not bring herself to tell the president that she believes the federal Sept. 11 victims’ fund is unfair because it subtracts firefighters’ pensions.