By ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A bill to give up to $7.4 billion to workers sickened during cleanup of the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 attacks passed in the House last week after a passionate floor debate in which supporters said they were standing up for heroes.

"To the living victims of 9/11, we have good news: Help is on the way," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., a lead advocate for the measure. "Today, the House answered the emergency calls of thousands of ailing 9/11 first responders and survivors."

New York lawmakers have been pushing for years for such a measure, which passed 268 to 160.

Similar legislation is pending in the Senate, but with Congress departing until after the fall midterm elections, prospects for passage are unclear. New York lawmakers said they will push to bring the bill to the Senate floor once Congress returns for its lame duck session.

"Today, members of the House put aside politics and made history by voting in favor of justice and care for the first responders and survivors of 9/11," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Ailing 9/11 responders were among those in the House gallery for the vote.

Republican critics branded the bill as yet another big-government program that would boost taxes and kill jobs.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, branded it a "new entitlement program that we simply cannot afford."

Texas Republican Lamar Smith complained the measure "creates a huge slush fund open to abuse, fraud and waste."

The bill would provide free health care and compensation to rescue and recovery workers who fell ill after being exposed to the massive dust cloud that enveloped lower Manhattan as the trade center fell/ It clung to ground zero for months.

Substantial questions remain about what types of illnesses might have been caused by the soot, which many workers inhaled because they had no access to respirators that might have protected their lungs.

Scientists have documented elevated levels of an asthma-like illness among many ground zero workers, as well as small but noticeable drops in lung function among many firefighters.

But doctors also say that many workers who have fallen ill since the attacks are suffering from conditions that are common, and that there may be no link to trade center dust.

One of the key components of the bill will be to shift some of the cost of paying for care for many workers from New York City to the federal government.

The vote acknowledges that the attacks "were an attack on America, and addressing its health impacts is a national duty," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. "This bill recognizes that the country should be there for the tens of thousands of responders who were there for us on 9/11."

President Barack Obama said in a statement that the bill, which had failed to pass in a July vote, "is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks."

To pay the bill's estimated $7.4 billion cost over 10 years, the legislation requires multinational companies incorporated in tax havens to pay taxes on income earned in the United States.

Bill supporters said that would close a tax loophole. Republicans branded it a corporate tax increase.

The legislation is named for James Zadroga, a police detective who died at age 34. His supporters say he died from respiratory disease contracted at ground zero, but New York City's medical examiner said Zadroga's lung condition was caused by prescription drug abuse.

As many as 10,000 police officers, firefighters and construction workers who were part of the trade center cleanup have also been offered shares of a legal settlement worth as much as $713 million.