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For persons who participated in World Trade Center rescue, recovery and clean-up operations as volunteers, the uninsured employers' fund shall be deemed to be the employer for the purposes of administering and paying claims pursuant to this article. Benefits under this chapter shall be payable to such volunteers in the first instance and to the extent that funds are available out of funds appropriated to the United States Department of Labor under Public Law 109-148 to reimburse the uninsured employer's fund for the payment of such benefits and thereafter from the uninsured employers' fund. The uninsured employers' fund may pay for volunteers' medical treatment notwithstanding such medical expenses having been denied by the World Trade Center Health Organization.