Editorial: Impasse over aid is terrible

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2000 | 4:50 a.m.

Talk about cruel. It's bad enough that workers unwittingly came down with serious -- and sometimes deadly -- illnesses when they helped build and test nuclear weapons starting in the early 1950s. Now, after waiting decades for assistance from the federal government, a $400 million package is in jeopardy that would compensate workers and surviving families for their medical costs and lost wages. As the Sun's Benjamin Grove reported last week, procedural wrangling in Congress could derail the plan this year, a proposal that would include compensation for those who worked at the Nevada Test Site.

House and Senate negotiators, who are trying to work out differences on competing versions of a Department of Defense appropriations legislation, have been unable to agree on the Senate's plan to include this compensation for workers in that spending bill. The delay has been caused by objections from the House Judiciary Committee, whose members are worried that approving the package could result in costly lawsuits by workers and their families since the federal government would be admitting liability.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in May tried to include the $400 million in the House's Department of Defense appropriations bill, but her bid was defeated. At the time Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., argued that a nonbinding resolution calling on Congress to address the issue would be sufficient. Congress' continuing gridlock over this issue has proved Berkley right so far -- and shown what little weight a nonbinding resolution has.

Many of those waiting to receive compensation are older and in failing health. It's a disgrace that it has taken this long for the federal government to even acknowledge it has a responsibility to these workers who were exposed to radiation and other dangerous materials -- further turf wars by members of Congress that delay the plan are outrageous. It's time to end the bickering and provide compensation for these workers.