Divvying Up Washington's Victims Fund

November 26, 2001 / 3:26 PM EST / AP

Attorney General John Ashcroft named Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg on Monday to oversee a government compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and their families.

The program, established by Congress in September, is to begin Dec. 21 and will dispense money - the amounts have not been determined - to cover lost wages and victims' pain and suffering.

Feinberg, a former assistant to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will play a pivotal role in deciding how much money victims' families will receive and how the compensation fund will work.

As special master of the program, Feinberg will oversee thorny issues about how people should apply for compensation, whether the program should pay for victims' lawyers and whether people who are not satisfied with their payment can appeal.

One of the most contentious issues is whether government compensation should be reduced by the amount victims' families receive from pensions, insurance payments or gifts from charities.

Feinberg said that the law that created the fund was ambiguous but that it gave him wide discretion.

The law creating the program says awards should take into account the amount of "collateral source compensation" applicants have or will receive but does not specify what sources should be included in determining reductions in awards.

The program was set up to serve as an alternative to filing lawsuits against the airlines and other entities. Those who receive awards will forfeit their right to sue.

Ashcroft called the fund "an important step in the effort to provide both fair and prompt relief."

Under Feinberg, it "will be administered expeditiously and fairly," Ashcroft said at a Justice Department news conference.

For his part, Feinberg promised a "simple, efficient and clear" process to cut through federal red tape and promptly distribute the relief.

Feinberg was selected based on his considerable experience as a mediator, government officials said.

Feinberg was one of three arbitrators who determined how much the government should pay the heirs of Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder for his film that captured the assassination of President Kennedy.

He was also a special master in Agent Orange cases involving soldiers alleging they were sickened by chemicals used by the government in Vietnam. He also worked on asbestos cases, a class-action case concerning the Shoreham nuclear facility and litigation involving claims against the maker of the Dalkon Shield birth control device.

Feinberg was an assistant to Kennedy in the late 1970s and was special counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1975 to 1980.

His appointment comes a week after the Bush administration renamed the Justice Department building after Kennedy's late brother, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.