Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the $7 billion compensation fund for
Sept. 11 victims, said the fund was "unique in American history."
The 9/11 fund: Putting a price on life
The 9/11 fund: Putting a price on life
By Aaron Smith @CNNMoney September 7, 2011: 9:38 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were unprecedented, not only in their intensity and devastation, but in the way Washington responded.
Eleven days after the attacks claimed more than 2,700 lives, Congress created a $7 billion fund to compensate 5,562 family members of the fallen. Payments went to widows and widowers, children and parents.
Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who was appointed as special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, told CNNMoney that the fund was "unique in American history," much like the attacks themselves.
The speedy creation of the fund, which required the cooperation of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, seems particularly dramatic when compared to the current brinkmanship over the budget.
Feinberg believes that a fund of the type and magnitude of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund will never be repeated.
"Bad things happen to good people every day in this country and it's not part of our heritage for the taxpayer to be an insurer," he said. "To give these people, on average, $2 million tax free flies in the face of American history."
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