Congress backs ill Flats workers
By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
October 9, 2004

Sick nuclear weapons workers from Rocky Flats and
other plants scored a victory Friday when Congress
voted to overhaul a program that has managed to pay
only 31 of them while spending $95 million on
paperwork.

About 1,700 former Rocky Flats workers are awaiting
action. Only one worker sickened while working at the
weapons plant outside Denver has been paid.

 "I'm just ecstatic they could agree on this," said
Terrie Barrie of Craig. Her husband, George, came down
with 30 ailments after inhaling and ingesting
plutonium at Rocky Flats. She has been a leader in the
nationwide network of weapons workers and relatives
fighting for reform.

A House-Senate conference committee decided to change
administrators of the program and to provide direct
federal funding to pay the workers. The overhaul,
contained in the military spending bill, is expected
to win final approval and be on the president's desk
by Sunday.

"The Cold War warriors and heroes at Rocky Flats
handled some of the most deadly substances known to
man, and, as a result, some incurred cancers and other
life-threatening diseases," said Sen. Wayne Allard,
R-Colo., a member of the conference committee who
helped hammer out the compromise.

"They were being tripped up by an endless series of
bureaucratic hurdles," Allard said. "They've waited
long enough."

Congress created the program in 2000 to help atom bomb
makers sickened by exposure to radiation and toxic
chemicals on the job. The Department of Energy was
placed in charge of half of the program. In four
years, DOE saw only 31 of its 25,000 applicants
paid.To accomplish that, DOE spent $95 million. A
federal auditor found DOE improperly hired a computer
company to process medical claims. That company,
Science & Engineering Associates, now called Apogen,
in turn charged the government $35 an hour for mail
clerks and $87.84 an hour for nurses that it called
"senior management analysts." The auditor found the
company never bid on providing such personnel.

The reform approved Friday transfers the program from
DOE to the Department of Labor, which has years of
experience in running workers compensation programs,
and already runs the successful half of the program.

Officials still must collect records of illness and
exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals, and decide
if that caused the workers' illnesses.

But under the original program, workers merely won the
right to fight insurers and employers for workers
compensation, often in court.

Now, they will be paid by the Department of Labor
under a new national formula.

Under the sliding scale, a worker with 50 percent
impairment would receive $125,000 and would get
another $50,000 if he or she was unable to work at 50
percent of pre-illness wages for five years. Ill
workers could receive a maximum of $250,000 under this
program, and possibly $150,000 under a separate Labor
program.

"That's exactly what the workers needed. That's just
what we've been working for," Terrie Barrie said. "It
feels wonderful. I'm so glad it's done."

Many of the workers became ill when they were young
and have enormous medical bills.

Allard said he worked with sponsor Sen. Jim Bunning,
R-Ky., to hammer out a compromise between the House
and Senate.

The bill had bipartisan support but was opposed by the
Bush administration, which insisted that the expensive
DOE computer program was now working and capable of
handling the backlog of applications.

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Boulder, long supported the reform,
and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, led an
investigation into DOE's mismanagement.

Among other things, DOE spent $4.8 million on a
computer system when its own consultant said a $50,000
version would have done just fine. The same consultant
went on for 28 pages about everything the computer
company was doing wrong in processing the workers'
claims.

In contrast, Labor was told to pay $150,000 each to
victims of three specified job-caused illnesses,
including cancer. In the same four years, Labor has
paid $910 million on behalf of 12,000 workers.

Sick workers remain worried that the government will
refuse to admit they were sickened by the job, because
radiation exposure records are missing, sketchy or
wrong.

"I don't believe until I get paid," said Wally Gulden
of Arvada, who at 66 is dying of lymphoma that he
blames on exposure to plutonium at Rocky Flats. "I was
a Cold War veteran. I don't trust the government any
more."

Key points of the new program

Workers must prove the illness was caused by
exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals while they
were working on atom bombs.

Spouses and children who were minors at the time of
death can collect $125,000.

Workers permanently impaired by their illnesses will
receive $2,500 for every percentage point of
impairment, as decided by the Department of Labor.

Benefits under this program are capped at $250,000.

If their ability to work was limited by the ailment,
they will receive $10,000 for each year before age 65
in which the illness prevented them from earning 75
percent of their pre-illness wage.

If they earn less than 50 percent of their
pre-illness wage, they can collect $15,000 for each
such year.

Workers who qualify may also collect the flat
$150,000 paid by the Department of the Labor for
certain cancers, beryllium disease and silicosis.

Source: Senate Offices Of Wayne Allard And Jim Bunning




imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5438