Ken Salazar offers bill on aid for nuke workers
Senator calls for total overhaul
By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Ken Salazar said he will introduce the CARE Act today.
The federal program to compensate sick nuclear weapons workers needs a complete overhaul, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said Wednesday.
Salazar said he will introduce today the Compensation and Respect for Energy Workers Act of 2008, or the CARE Act, to reform the program.
"We need to do everything we can to make sure that those who worked at Rocky Flats are not shortchanged in the way that the government bureaucracy has done so in the last few years," Salazar said.
His legislation would address some of the shortcomings identified this week in a special report by the Rocky Mountain News. It would:
* Give claimants full access to the database that the U.S. Department of Labor uses to help determine which nuclear weapons workers will get compensation. The Rocky found key information in the database is currently unavailable to the public based on national security concerns.
* Require the Labor Department to give written notice to claimants that they may be eligible for alternative paths to aid. The Rocky found claimants who by law should have been automatically approved for more aid but were never told of their options.
* Pay the estate of a claimant if he or she dies before receiving the compensation. The Rocky found one in 17 claimants nationwide died before receiving their money.
* Expand the authority of the program's ombudsman, who helps claimants when they have questions or problems, to assist with radiation-related cancers and beryllium disease. As it is now, the Labor Department ombudsman only takes questions that focus on toxic exposure. Salazar's bill also would allow the ombudsman to hire experts in such areas as medicine and toxicology.
Ken Freiberg, a former Rocky Flats manager who spent some 50 years at the facility northwest of Denver, said that an expanded ombudsman could be key for claimants.
Freiberg said even with his radiation protection background, it took him more than four years to prove his lung cancer was related to his job.
"If there could be one contact where people could call to get information, I think that is extremely important," he said.
Some 600,000 Americans helped build the nation's nuclear weapons during World War II and the Cold War. More than 165,000 sick workers - or their survivors - have filed for compensation Congress offered them in 2000.
The program went through a major reform in 2004, when Congress fired the Department of Energy for spending $90 million to compensate 32 people.
Today, the Labor Department oversees the entire program.
Labor Department officials did not respond to the Rocky's requests during the past two months for comment on the program's problems.
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July 24, 2008
7:33 a.m.
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Alive writes:
Well here is our little racist. Looks like your rhetoric has been subdued a bit. What happened? Wait, I'll just go read the artstarzz report. LOL!
July 24, 2008
8:31 a.m.
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Alive writes:
Your senator won't help me. I am the wrong color. You should know that, racist boy.
July 24, 2008
8:41 a.m.
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Alive writes:
Shut up racist scum. You have no credibility. You are just a bigot. Be gone!
July 24, 2008
8:46 a.m.
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vudumom writes:
He's doing this now? Our government goes on vacation in 2 days!
July 24, 2008
10:39 a.m.
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jbowen43 writes:
Time to stick a fork in the idea of using nuclear energy. Leave the uranium in the ground and quit poisoning people.
July 24, 2008
12:25 p.m.
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RickyLee writes:
Hey FARTSTARZZ, where's your little bigoted crap about la raza?
You're still too cowardly to explain which "race" you mean when you drool that onto these threads. Why are you so much in denial about your racism? There's no room in America for bigots like you
"la raza" is the biggest racist organization to come along since the kkk. Admit it, racist scumbag.
VIVA LA DEPORTATION
July 24, 2008
2:12 p.m.
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RickyLee writes:
VIVA LA I.C.E.