DOE will continue to handle Test Site compension claims

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Nov. 10, 2003 | 9 a.m.

WASHINGTON --- The Energy Department will still handle a portion of the the compensation program for former Nevada Test Site employees who are ill from work-related exposure to toxic chemicals and radiation.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and other lawmakers pushed for the Labor Department to take over workers' claims to speed up payments to Nevada Test Site employees, but a provision was stripped from the energy and water spending bill conference report, approved last week. That bill that would transfer some claims responsibility from the Energy Department to the Labor Department.

Supporters of the transfer urged Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that crafts the bill and its Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to support the change since ill workers are still waiting for help.

Reid wanted the change, but a spokeswoman said too many other House members and senators involved in the negotiations wanted it to remain at the Energy Department, so there is no change.

Louisiana's Democratic Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu did not want the switch since it would have hurt Science & Engineering Associates, a Louisiana-based Energy Department contractor that oversees the computer databases associated with the program.

The Energy Department will still compile employee work and medical records and have an independent physician panel determine if the job-related exposure to harmful materials caused the illness. If so, the Energy Department assists the employee in filing state claims.

The Labor Department helps former Energy Department employees who are sick from exposure to beryllium or have cancer or silicosis caused by radiation exposure. Those people are supposed to receive lump sum payments of $150,000 each and payment of future medical expenses associated with their illness from their work at department facilities, including the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

For the Nevada Test Site, 2,081 claims have been filed, and about $11.5 million has been paid on 89 claims, according to Labor Department Statistics through Sept. 29.

But Energy Department data from Oct. 3 indicate that 402 claims have been filed by Nevada Test workers, but do not say which claims have been processed.