Editorial: Further delays are intolerable

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

House and Senate negotiators have been huddling behind closed doors, arguing over a compensation program proposed for former nuclear weapons workers who contracted work-related illnesses. The Senate passed a compensation program that's estimated to cost $2.4 billion over the first five years of its existence, prompting opposition from deficit hawks in the House. But on Thursday members of Congress had to look into the eyes of these workers and listen to their tragic stories during a House Judiciary subcommittee meeting.

One of those faces was Ray Slaughter of Las Vegas, who has silicosis. For 23 years Slaughter hauled radiated rock away from nuclear bomb blast sites in the tunnels under the Nevada Test Site. "We'd go right to ground zero," Slaughter told Sun reporter Benjamin Grove prior to his testimony. Yet Slaughter's own government has shown no compassion for him and the thousands of other nuclear weapons workers who toiled away in dangerous conditions on projects deemed vital to our national security.

The Clinton administration deserves credit for even making this an issue in the first place. After decades of denials from previous administrations, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson finally acknowledged in April that the government put these workers at risk. In addition, Clinton has backed the Senate's proposal, which provides more money to the workers than does a competing House plan. Unfortunately, however, the administration only is proposing coverage of illnesses linked to exposure to radiation and beryllium, omitting silicosis. Silence on the issue of silicosis coverage is better than the original administration policy, which was leaning toward outright opposition, but it still is unconscionable that those with silicosis aren't included in the administration's plan.

If a nation that is as economically vibrant as ours can't provide compensation for them now, when will it ever? Congress should listen to the pleas of the former workers, such as Ann Orick of Knoxville, Tenn. "Many of us do not have time left on this earth. We need your action now," Orick said. It's time for closure. All of these workers should be compensated -- and that includes those who have silicosis.