Will Bush end U-miner payments?

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to remove some people from a compensation program for workers who contracted illnesses after working in Cold War-era nuclear weapons programs.

The administration says more study is needed to determine if some workers who helped mine uranium actually qualify for compensation. Critics say further delay means more eligible workers will die before getting any money.

"They've been stonewalling, and it's a crying shame," said Ed Brickey, president of the Colorado Uranium Workers Council. "We have people who are dying because of where they worked."

The administration wants to delay the payments until the completion of three ongoing studies, said Chris Ullman, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.

William Lambert, an epidemiologist at the University of Oregon working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said the studies are looking at whether exposure to uranium and silica dust in the mines caused the illnesses.

It could be six months to a year before the studies are finished, Lambert said.

"The administration is shirking its moral and legal responsibility to a segment of society that is powerless because they're old and sick. It's a total disgrace," said Lori Goodman, spokeswoman for Dine CARE, which represents Navajo Indians who worked in the uranium mines.

Ullman noted that the administration approved $84 million in supplemental spending to make immediate payments to miners who qualified under the original compensation program and is seeking $97 million next year and a total of $710 million over the next 10 years.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed by Congress in 1990 to compensate below-ground uranium miners and people exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests.

Aboveground uranium miners, ore-haulers and millers were added to the program last year and could begin applying for $100,000 payments in January.

At least 141 ore-haulers and millers applied for compensation, but none have been paid.

Now the administration wants to remove those workers from the program until the studies are finished. OMB officials met with staffers for several senators earlier this month, briefing them on the administration's position.