Subject: BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS FAILED TENNESSEE NUCLEAR WORKERS

For Immediate Release
Anthony Coley:  202-464-2895 (Kerry Campaign)

Bush Administration Has Failed Tennessee Nuclear Workers

The Bush Department of Energy (DOE) has failed to compensate thousands of former workers exposed to dangerous chemicals and radiation while building nuclear weapons for the Cold War. The Clinton-era initiative has languished for the last four years due to bureaucratic oversight as the over 24,000 workers who have applied wait for relief, nearly 5,000 in Tennessee alone. Nationally, just 10 have received payments to date.

"Employees of DOE contractors have performed important work for their country. Even though they may have worked for a government contractor, these dedicated individuals are our workers and we are going to take care of them. ...  Under this program, we will help remove bureaucratic barriers that currently confront deserving contractor employees when they seek to obtain state workers' compensation benefits." [Energy Secretary Abraham, DOE Press Release, 8/8/02]

Bush Department of Energy Bureaucracy Preventing
Nuclear Workers From Receiving Compensation.

In December 2000, President Clinton signed an executive order charging the DOE with helping workers who were exposed to chemicals and radiation during nuclear weapons construction obtain compensation from state worker's compensation boards. For the past four years, review of the cases has been so slow that
only 10 of the 24,606 applicants have received payments. [Rocky Mountain
News, 7/6/04; Cincinnati Enquirer, 12/11/00]

Nearly 5,000 Tennessee Workers Have Applied For Compensation.
To date, 4,913 Tennessee workers have applied, claiming
they were exposed  to chemicals and radiation in the manufacturing of
nuclear weapons.  [Gannett News Service, 6/24/04]

Bush Administration Has Wasted Millions on Inefficient Review System
That Will Take Over A Decade to Finish.

Rather than coordinate on a similar program being run the Department of Labor,
Bush's appointees at  DOE decided to contract out to review the
applications for compensation. A 2003 audit found that rather than buy an
off-the-shelf computer system for $50,000, the DOE spent $4.8 million on a new
system and was paying contractors $36 an hour for file clerks and $200 for
program managers.

At the current rate, the DOE will not finish reviewing the claims for
another 12 years. "Only in a government contract can people make so much
money and perform so poorly," stated Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). "If
this were the private sector, these people would get canned and be out
on the street." [NBC Nightly News, 7/9/04; Rocky Mountain News, 7/6/04;

Bush Opposes Bipartisan Reform Plan To Speed Relief.
  A bipartisan plan  in the Senate would shift the DOE program to the Department of Labor -  whose own program has been much more efficient in providing compensation. But Bush opposes the proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). As Bunning puts it, "DOE has squandered four years. Many of these workers are dying and should not have to wait any long for DOE to get its act together." [Rocky Mountain News, 7/6/04]