N002553
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Dear Mr. Feinberg:
I lost the sole provider for my family on September 11, 2001, when my husband was killed in the
Pentagon. My husband and I have two young children and I am a stay-at-home mother. I am
losing sleep and can hardly eat over the anxiousness I feel about our financial future. I pray that
you will listen to the comments made and will incorporate those suggestions that make sense to
you and are feasible. I am not trying to become wealthy, but want to be able to provide for my
children the way my husband would have if he had not been killed.
My comments about the fund are as follows:
ECONOMIC LOSS
The baseline for earnings should not be calculated using the average of income from tax returns
over 1998, 1999, and 2000. They should be based upon the current salary level at the time of
death. My husband had 27 more years of work ahead of him. He had just received a promotion in
the fall of 2000, which would not be reflected using the currently proposed formula. My husband
was definitely going to continue to be promoted; however, the currently proposed formula would
cause his earnings to DECREASE! Since the intent of this portion of the formula is to project future
earnings, please use the 2001 salary level as a baseline.
NON-ECONOMIC LOSS
This amount should not have collateral offsets deducted from it, but should be protected and
preserved. Therefore, please consider excluding it from the formula.
The amounts suggested for non-economic loss are two low-especially for the dependents. The
pain and suffering my children will experience for the rest of their childhoods and lives is most
certainly worth much more than $50,000. My family should receive well over $100,000 more than
someone without children. The trauma I am feeling is multiplied threefold by the pain of my
children. While it is impossible to put a figure to the suffering felt, the amounts need to be much
higher. If we decide to participate in the fund, we would be giving up our right to sue for wrongful
death; therefore, the figures should be somewhere in between life insurance figures and historical
litigation awards. My suggestion would be $750,000 per victim plus an additional $250,000 per
dependent.
I hope that you will incorporate some of our suggestions to come up with a program that is a
compromise to litigating and attractive enough for us to choose.
Individual Comment
Manassas, VA