September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: a conversation with Rupa Bhattacharyya

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The Business of Government Radio Hour, hosted by Michael J. Keegan, features a conversation with a federal executive who is changing the way government does business. The executives discuss their careers and the management challenges facing their organizations. Guests include administrators, chief financial officers, chief information officers, chief operating officers, commissioners, controllers, directors, and undersecretaries.

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What is the mission of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund? How can those sick and injured from the 9/11 terrorist attacks apply for compensation funds? What benefits are offered under the VCF Permanent Authorization Act? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Rupa Bhattacharyya, Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

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GUEST BIOGRAPHY:

Rupa Bhattacharyya has a distinguished career in public service. Rupa joined the Department of Justice in 1996 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division. As a Civil Division litigator, she defended government entities ranging from the Departments of State, Defense, and the Treasury, to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission, to the United States Census Bureau and the Selective Service Commission, as well as individual government employees sued in their individual capacities. She was awarded the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement for Trial Litigation, as well as three Special Commendations from the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division for Outstanding Service. In August 2008, Rupa accepted a Senior Executive Service position as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for International Affairs at the Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, Rupa supervised a team of attorneys handling legal activities relating to a broad range of international economic, financial, and regulatory matters, and in 2012, she received an Exceptional Service Award from the Secretary of the Treasury.

In April 2012, Rupa returned to DOJ as a Director in the Torts Branch, with oversight over the Office of Constitutional and Specialized Tort Litigation. In that capacity, she managed three offices: the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which has paid in excess of $3.4 billion to more than 4,700 people since the Program’s 1988 inception under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act; the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program, which has awarded more than $2 billion in compassionate compensation to eligible claimants under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act; and the Constitutional Torts staff, which defends constitutional tort claims brought against federal officials sued in their individual capacities in federal district courts and reviews and makes determinations on requests for individual capacity representation from federal employees.

Prior to her legal professional career, Rupa served as a law clerk for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons, then of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and now of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Rupa graduated from Harvard Law School and has a Master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her undergraduate degree is from Tulane University in her hometown of New Orleans.

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