Editorial: Widows wait while feds fiddle

Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

It was bad enough that Congress waited until two years ago to pass legislation providing compensation for Nevada Test Site workers and other federal employees diagnosed with job-related radiation sicknesses. So much time had elapsed by then -- many of the exposures took place in the 1940s, '50s and '60s -- that many of the workers themselves had died and any compensation would be collected by surviving spouses. Now it turns out that instead of acting quickly to cut these long-overdue compensation checks, the Labor Department considered the workers to be such a low priority that only three people were assigned to process their claims.

This, of course, led to claims stacking up and workers and widows waiting nervously for checks that never came. Three weeks ago, in response to innumerable calls and letters from frustrated claimants, the Labor Department finally assigned a total of 75 people to review the backlogged claims, which by then amounted to 8,000. Complaints were also made to Sen. Harry Reid, who has inserted language into the 2003 Labor Department appropriations bill that requires at least 75 people to remain assigned until all of the claims have been reviewed.

We thoroughly support Reid's action, but we have to ask: Why does it take action by a U.S. senator to ensure that a bill affecting so many people receives the proper priority? Federal employees who put their health and their lives at risk in service of their country should have been receiving top priority all along, particularly after money had at long last been appropriated. The affected workers or their surviving spouses were each to receive $150,000 plus medical expenses.

After President Clinton signed the compensation bill in December 2000, the Labor Department spent valuable time trying to shift administrative responsibility to the Justice Department. When that didn't work, it sat on the claims while beneficiaries suffered. We hope that now, finally, the Labor Department will take its responsibility seriously and speed help to those who helped us win the Cold War.