HARTFORD, Conn. — One of the 53 Americans held in Iran for 443 days is urging the federal government to quickly proceed with distributing money from a new financial compensation fund to the aging former hostages and their families.

Moorhead Kennedy, who lives on Mount Desert Island in Maine, appeared Monday with his family at the Connecticut state Capitol. Kennedy, now 85, spoke of his ordeal, which ended in 1981. He would wake up screaming, later realizing he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He said one of his colleagues hasn’t slept a full night in last 36 years.

Kennedy credited Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal with helping to include a provision in a recent omnibus budget bill that created a new compensation fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

Kennedy’s son lives in Connecticut.