WASHINGTON — With the Victims Compensation Fund running out of money, New York senators and House members joined an effort Monday to extend the compensation program for survivors of and responders impacted by the terrorist attack that brought down the World Trade Center twin towers on Sep. 11, 2001.

Those who filed claims on or prior to Feb. 1, 2019, are facing a 50 percent cut so the depleted $7.3 billion fund can last through its 2020 expiration date, the fund’s special master reported earlier this month.

Supporters of the aid are calling on Congress to provide additional funding for and make permanent the Victim Compensation Fund.

“We must honor our 9/11 heroes and that means giving them the support they need and deserve now,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand at a news conference attended by dozens of 9/11 survivors, construcion workers, family members and activists. “Otherwise, ‘never forget’ is meaningless.”

The fund, authorized by Congress in 2010 and again in 2015, is intended primarily to compensate those firefighters, police officers, construction workers and others who labored at or near the twisted ruins of the twin towers.

The towers were brought down by terrorists who hijacked jets and crashed them into the buildings, killing more than 2,700 including 343 firefighters, 23 police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers.

Although government officials assured those picking through the ruble that they were safe, the ruins proved to be highly toxic. The remaining $2 billion in the fund will not be enough to cover 22,000 cases deemed eligible for compensation, plus the unknown number of claims yet to be filed.

The fund’s overseer, Rupa Bhattacharyya, reported a larger-than-expected number of claims has drained the fund faster than expected. Among the chief drivers was an uptick in claims by families of those who succumbed to 9/11-related diseases, she said.

The VCF is set to expire in 2020, and the Special Master who runs it recently announced plans to cut payouts by between 50 percent and 70 percent to ensure all are paid.

For the New York congressional delegation, 9/11 compensation is more than just old-fashioned constituent service, and it transcends party. Members including Gillibrand, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-Manhattan, and Rep. Peter King, R-L.I. cast failure to support the victims as a moral outrage.

“The people who have suffered have suffered for the United States,” said Nadler, the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “A great nation cannot nickel and dime people who have sacrificed their health on our behalf.”

Gillibrand and Schumer were visibly emotional, choking up as they delivered appeals to fellow members of Congress to immediately pump more money into the fund to cover the shortfall.

“This is not a money bill; this is a bill about what America is all about,” Schumer said. “When people are hurt because we are attacked, we come together. And if we learn more people are hurt, we don’t stop and say 'too late buddy, too late ma’am, you got your cancer five years too late.'”

“We step up to the plate,” he said. “That’s what America has always done. That’s what America must do now.”

Although police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians are the ones most often cited as victims of the toxic contents buried in the ruins, others who frequented lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11 also suffered.

Lila Nordstrom, a student at Stuyvesant High School at the time of the attack, recalled being assured that it was safe to return to school. Later on, she said, students found out “we’d been lied to.” She said she is suffering from a 9/11-related illness that she did not identify.

Gillibrand and Schumer both urged up-or-down votes in the Senate, unencumbered by extraneous elements. The bill to add money and make the fund permanent, the Never Forget the Heroes Act, is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled House.

Although the New York delegation mostly demurred when asked about the prospects of getting legislation through the Republican-controlled Senate, comedian and former Daily Show host Jon Stewart offered little assurance.

"I can assure you (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.) is an impediment," he said.