GOP Senators, White House in Brawl

[cal04]

GOP Senators, White House in Brawl Over Paying Ill Weapons Plant Workers


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is locked in a rare election-year fight with fellow Republicans in the Senate over a troubled program for tens of thousands of weapons plant workers who got sick building nuclear bombs. The lawmakers say they don't understand why the administration is blocking a Senate-passed amendment to the defense bill that would overhaul a compensation program bogged down by delays and other problems.

"I can't fully understand what their resistance is," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is in a tough re-election battle in Alaska. "We've been hammered by our constituents." Many of the workers are from battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, including Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio and Washington state. "These people are sick and dying," said Terrie Barrie of Craig, Colo., whose husband was sickened while working at the former Rocky Flats plant near Denver. "The administration, the Department of Energy, is just refusing to listen."

The Senate proposal would streamline the compensation process by having the government pay claims directly rather than having Energy Department contractors do it and later reimbursing them. It also would move the program from the Energy Department to the Labor Department and require the government to perform environmental studies of plants.
The lawmakers complain the Energy Department has squandered much of the $95 million it received since Congress created the program. As of the end of July, the agency has paid only 31 claims out of about 25,000 filed. The $700,000 in paid claims amounts to an average benefit of roughly $22,500.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBZDRKLKYD.html

[Wapsie B]

1. $22,500?

One of those claimants should be able to file a lawsuit that when settled, would bring these contractors to their knees. 95 mil ain't enough for even one of these claims, let alone 25,000.

[mom cat]

2. Compassion strikes again!

Heartless thugs.

[drscm]

3. Don't you just love the "Compassionate Conservatives"?

B@stards...

[fearnobush]

4. Now thats true compassion.

Fucking GOP.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x789453

[DulceDecorum]

6. Overkill

Nuclear bombs
kill everyone who comes into contact with them.
The guys who make them,
The guys who live near them,
The guys who transport them,
The guys who load them, and
The guys who drop them.

So how much do you really hate that other guy
walking around on the ground
in his own country?

[BeFree]

7. Four more paras

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said changing who runs the program would cause more delays. He also expressed concern about GOP members in Congress feuding with a Republican administration during a presidential election year.

Harry Williams, a former worker at the Energy Department's Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility, said he is a Republican who doesn't plan to vote for Bush this November as long as the administration continues to oppose the changes workers want.

"I voted for him last time, but this time around I don't think I will," Williams said. "As it comes to dealing with the working guy, his administration doesn't have a feel for it."

Democrats in Congress generally have watched the dispute from the sidelines. However, their presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, issued a statement Tuesday calling it "wrong for George Bush to block deserved health benefits to workers who became ill because of service to their country,"