By Lauren Markoe September 29, 2021

A stopgap spending bill to avoid a federal government shutdown includes $22 million to investigate the cause of the collapse of the condominium in Surfside, Fl.

Nearly 100 people died in the June fall of Champlain Towers South, including many Jews. Surfside, which lies just north of Miami Beach, is home to a large Orthodox community.

U.S. Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fl. Image by getty images

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The money, inserted into the bill by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat whose district includes Surfside, would fund a technical study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“As we still mourn all those we lost, it’s crucial to assess just how widespread these building vulnerability issues may be,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “In South Florida and across the United States, thousands of condos just like Champlain Towers may face similar structural problems.”

The institute has conducted similar studies of disasters — natural and manmade — in the past, including the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center and Hurricane Maria in 2017 in Puerto Rico.

Congress is wrangling over legislation to fund federal agencies before the fiscal year ends at midnight on Thursday.

An unnamed buyer has agreed to buy the site of the collapsed tower for $120 million, according to Michael Goldberg, its court-appointed receiver. Some families of those who died at the site do not want it developed and envision an extensive memorial on the oceanfront land.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount