Congress and our political class have been letting 9/11 families down for 25 years

There is a particular ache in watching a nation mark a tragedy with ritual while the harder work of reckoning remains unfinished. This Hill opinion piece, available at https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/politics/6081670-911-anniversary-political-accountability/, captures that discomfort well. The author’s central charge is not that politicians are indifferent to 9/11, but that their engagement has been performative—heavy on ceremony, light on consequence. It is a criticism that lands across the aisle, because the habit of honoring victims while avoiding uncomfortable questions about institutional failure is a bipartisan one. To be fair, defenders of the political class can point to real structural changes after 9/11: the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence overhaul, and new surveillance and aviation security frameworks. Those were substantial, and they happened under enormous pressure. But the article’s deeper point is that accountability is not a one-time event. Many of the families have spent decades asking for declassified documents, for answers about missed warnings, and for mechanisms that would make future failures less likely. On that front, progress has been inconsistent at best. What makes this piece resonate is its insistence that the measure of political sincerity is not the podium but the follow-through. Americans are used to seeing politicians stand at ground zero with solemn faces; they are less accustomed to watching them stay engaged when the cameras leave. The article suggests that too many in Washington have treated the families as props for national mourning rather than as citizens owed a full accounting. There is, of course, another side to consider. Some would argue that the government has already released enormous amounts of information, and that endless investigations risk creating a cycle that never reaches closure. Others would note that many 9/11 families themselves have differing views on what accountability should look like. Those are legitimate points. But the column’s broader challenge remains worth taking seriously: if ceremony becomes a substitute for action, then the anniversary risks becoming a comfortable ritual rather than a call to duty. For a nation that promised “never forget,” the question is whether remembering has been enough.