Nuke compensation plan shelved

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A congressional panel apparently has scrapped a plan for this year to compensate nuclear weapons laborers for their work-related illnesses.

That means workers from the Nevada Test Site and other government and nongovernment sites around the nation would not get immediate financial relief.

"This is the most outrageous development imaginable," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said today. "To deny these workers any compensation is an embarrassment to every American citizen."

The Department of Energy in April made a historic admission that some of the thousands of workers who built and tested the nation's nuclear arsenal during the Cold War got sick because of exposure to radiation, beryllium and silica. DOE Secretary Bill Richardson urged Congress to compensate the workers.

But a panel of House and Senate leaders has not agreed on a compensation plan. On Monday bipartisan Senate negotiators said House Republicans were blocking an agreement.

"Unfortunately, the House leadership refused to even consider this issue," said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., one of the negotiators. "They never put a serious offer on the table."

A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., disagreed.

"The speaker is very sympathetic to the plight of these victims and wants to get something resolved on this," John Feehery said. "But we need to be thoughtful and focused in our response."

The sticking point boils down to money, some say. The plan under consideration would hand roughly 4,000 workers and survivors families at least $200,000, estimated to cost more than $1.7 billion in the coming years.

"This is a political decision by the House leadership," Berkley said. "They don't want to come up with the money."

Other observers say a behind-the-scenes turf battle also has developed between the negotiators over which congressional committees have jurisdiction over the plan.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., called that a "cruel injustice."

"This is what makes people so cynical about politics," Bryan said. "These are real people who suffer from real medical problems, and the Republican leadership is now playing politics or is involved in a turf battle."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a statement today called the negotiation breakdown "shameful."

Hundreds of workers for decades toiled at the Test Site roughly 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas building and testing nuclear weapons.

Former contract worker Clifford Clayton, who handled beryllium with his bare hands as part of his job inventorying Test Site supplies in a North Las Vegas warehouse, said he would continue lobbying for benefits. He suspects the degeneration of his spine is linked to his former work.

"I'm still in to see who is eligible," Clayton said today. "I will be joining the force to keep up the fight."

Another Nevadan, Test Site miner Ray Slaughter was among the workers who hauled blasted rock out of tunnels under the Test Site after nuclear bombs were detonated for tests. He now has silicosis, which affects his lungs, a condition he said he got from breathing silica dust in the tunnels.

Slaughter joined several workers from around the nation who testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee last week.

Nevada's members in Congress said they would make a final-hour pitch. Congress is trying to complete its work for this year by early next month, but it's never too late, they said.

"I will continue to put pressure on House leadership and will not rest until Congress recognizes America's obligation to those who sacrificed their health to protect our nation in the Cold War," Nevada's lone Republican in Congress, Rep. Jim Gibbons, said in a statement.

Sun reporter Mary Manning and Gannett News Service contributed to this report.