Mayor Michael Bloomberg is heading to Washington today in an effort to persuade Republican senators to support the health care compensation bill for first responders to the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The mayor will join Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with several congressmen and labor leaders, to ask the Senate to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

Bloomberg will meet with Illinois Senator-elect Mark Kirk, along with Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Susan Collins of Maine – all moderate Republicans who could give the bill enough support to pass.

Democrats need two senators to cross the aisle to break a possible Republican filibuster.

The Zadroga bill would provide more than $7 billion in aid to rescue workers and first responders sickened by exposure to toxic dust after the towers fell.

The measure has already passed in the House and needs to pass in the Senate’s lame-duck session. Otherwise, the process would have to start from scratch in the new Congress.

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(Source: NY1)