Jon Stewart returned to "The Daily Show" Monday, but this time as a correspondent and guest as he urged for the passage of the Zadroga Reauthorization Act, which would give permanent healthcare to 9/11 first responders.
Stewart talked about his trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress members to pass the bill, but he said most lawmakers ducked him
"like meerkats and prairie dogs," Rolling Stone reported.
"These first responders, many sick with cancers and pulmonary disease, have had to travel at their own expense to Washington, D.C., hundreds of times, to plead for our government to do the right thing," he said. "The only conclusion that I can draw is that the people of Congress are not as good a people as the people who are first responders."
On a website urging for the passage of legislation, supporters argue that it is necessary so 9/11 emergency responders can continue to get the help they need.
Also on the show, Stewart interviewed New York firefighter Kenny Specht, whom he first talked to alongside three others first responders five years ago on "The Daily Show."
"[It's] just you and I," Specht told Stewart Monday. "Five and a half years ago we did a show. Seventy-five percent of the panel is no longer here."
"Two of the people have illnesses and, obviously, by law, I can't comment on how sick they are, and John Devlin, who sat at the last chair, an operating engineer, passed away since our show. So I think we brought the statistics to show that, when we did the show five and a half years ago, four men sat here. It's just you and I," he added.
According to New York magazine, some lawmakers argued that the bill would be too expensive to maintain. Democrats blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for a failed attempt to attach the measure to the recently passed transportation bill.