U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) sent a letter Thursday to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez urging him to postpone the implementation of more than 70 proposed rule changes to the government’s compensation program for sick nuclear workers.
The senators said some of the changes to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation Program could impair the adjudication of claims filed by former workers at the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities or their surviving relatives.
Alexander and Udall said at least 72 proposed changes should be delayed until the Labor Department can incorporate the findings of a recent Government Accountability Office report on the EEOICPA and provide more time for the newly created Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health to meet and review the changes. The board is supposed to have its first meeting in late April.
“At the peak of the Cold War, nearly 600,000 workers across the country — including tens of thousands of Tennesseans — were involved in the research and production of nuclear weapons,” Alexander said in a statement.
“These men and women worked with little-understood hazardous materials to build and maintain our nation’s nuclear defense and keep our country safe. The Department of Labor is proposing to put in place rules that could make it harder for these workers, many of whom are sick and elderly, to get the medical benefits they deserve,” he said. “We think the department should first address potential problems with its operation of the program before the department adds more burdens to these workers.”
Of the more than $12 billion in compensation payments and medical care costs that have been awarded since the legislation was passed in 2000, more than $2 billion has gone to residents of Tennessee – mostly former workers at the Oak Ridge facilities or their surviving relatives.
Tennessee is the only state with more than $2 billion in payments via the federal program. New Mexico is second, having received more than $1.6 billion, according to the Department of Labor statistics.
