Program for Sick Nuclear Workers Stalls

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao confirmed that her agency will oversee a new compensation program for sick Cold War-era nuclear weapon workers but said Wednesday that it will not meet a congressional deadline to accept applications.

Chao had wanted to shift control of the program to the Justice Department, which she said was better suited to oversee it. She changed her mind amid criticism from lawmakers who were upset by the job Justice has done running a compensation program for former uranium miners and people who lived downwind of nuclear test blasts.

“I think this is a win for workers,” Chao said in an interview. “This is a priority. We want to take care of the workers. We want to make sure justice is done.”

Chao also said her staff cannot meet a July 31 deadline to begin accepting applications, and she wants Congress to grant an extension. She said she did not know how much more time her agency would need to get ready but that medical benefits would be made retroactive to July 31.

Also likely to be missed is a May 31 deadline for completing the regulations needed to implement the program. Chao said she was reluctant to estimate how much more time might be needed.

“I’m pushing them as hard as I can to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to meet the deadline, but I’m not going to mislead the workers,” she said.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), among the first to criticize Chao’s proposal to move the program out of her department, said he was understanding about the delays.

“I think it’s very important that when this thing is kicked off that it is done right,” he said. “I think she’s just being responsible.”

The program approved last year by Congress offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the nuclear weapon complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada.

The program is limited to those with cancer associated with radiation, silicosis or chronic beryllium disease. Eligibility rules for some workers have been set by law, and the Labor Department must work out qualification guidelines for the rest.

The Bush administration faces an April 28 deadline for deciding whether miners who dug nuclear testing tunnels will remain eligible for compensation. Chao said she has recommended that it include silicosis, a respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica, a hard, glassy mineral.

A toll-free number set up by that department to field requests has logged more than 19,000 calls. The information line is (877) 447-9756.

About 600,000 people worked in the weapon complex during the Cold War.