9-11 Responders Watch House Debates and Votes on Health Bill

Paramedics, firefighters and police officers who responded to the scene of the terror attacks looked on as the House debated Wednesday afternoon, then voted on the $4.2 billion 9-11 responders health bill the Senate passed earlier in the day.

Dozens of first responders from New York made their way from the Senate side of Capitol Hill to the public gallery in the House of Representatives to watch the debate on the 9-11 bill.

Many of them are wearing tee-shirts reading, "We were there," emblazoned with an image of the Twin Towers and NYC firefighters and police officers.

One firefighter with an insignia of an ambulance on his jacket trudged up the stairs to the third level of the Capitol. Obviously winded, he muttered to a colleague, "As though we didn't climb enough stairs that day."

It was obviously a reference to his fallen comrades who started climbing the stairs of the World Trade Center only to be injured or die when it fell.

Fox producer Wes Barrett contributed to this report.