Monday, Sep. 15, 2008

Legislation would expand benefits of ill Hanford workers

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

More survivors of ill workers at Hanford and other nuclear sites could receive federal compensation under proposed legislation.

The proposed amendment to federal law is intended to ensure that compensation for sick former nuclear workers won't be taken away in cases in which a sick worker or a survivor who has filed a claim die before the claim is processed. Some ill workers have waited years for a claim to be processed.

"We should not allow an inefficient bureaucracy to run out the clock through a claims process that takes so long that our Cold War heroes are dying before their claims are processed, leaving their families with no compensation," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in a statement.

Alexander and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., are the lead co-sponsors of the amendment offered to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009.

The Department of Labor estimated the change would affect about 1,200 current and future claimants.

The amendment would cover Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, which has different survivor benefits than the better-known Part B.

Part B offers $150,000 to workers or survivors -- including spouses, adult children, parents, grandparents and grandchildren -- if the federal government determines that a worker's cancer likely was due to exposure to radiation. It also covers beryllium disease.

Part E offers up to $250,000 for wage loss and impairment cause by exposure to toxic substances, which could include radiation, chemicals, solvents, acids and metals. But if a worker dies, survivors eligible to receive compensation include only spouses and dependent children.

Under the proposed amendment, if the ill worker or survivor applying for Part E died before a decision was made on the claim, certain other family members would be eligible to receive the compensation, including adult children.

The amendment is designed to address cases in which no compensation is paid to family members because the case drags on for so long, according to Alexander's office.

"The men and women who built our nuclear deterrent -- and their families -- deserve better," he said.

The problem was highlighted in a report by the compensation program's ombudsman, who said in a report to Congress last year that "adult children have written and spoken of the hardship they endured in caring for their dying parent and the personal and financial sacrifices they made to care for their terminally ill mother or father," making it appropriate that they be eligible for benefits.

The compensation program has paid out $268 million to Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers and their survivors.

For more information on the compensation program, call the Hanford Resource Center at 946-3333 or 888-654-0014.

w Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com