Obama Urges Feds To Do More To Help Workers
Monday, October 29, 2007
Printable FormatRocky Mountain News by Laura Frank
Presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama sent a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao last week suggesting how she could do more to help ill nuclear weapons workers nationwide.
But Shelby Hallmark, the Labor Department's director for the worker compensation program, said all of Obama's suggestions are outside the Labor Department's control. Instead, they come under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he said.
"Basically, he sent the letter to the wrong secretary," Hallmark said.
Obama said Chao should urge President Bush to appoint a more balanced advisory board for the program, meet with workers who are awaiting streamlined aid and speed up the process of estimating workers' radiation doses.
Hallmark said all those issues fall in Health and Human Services' lap. Labor "can't do anything about speeding them up," he said, adding that the Labor Department has no control over the presidential advisory board and does not weigh in on workers' petitions for streamlined aid.
"We have no role, no authority and no involvement in those," Hallmark said. "Clearly his concerns are elsewhere."
Obama, through a spokeswoman, disagreed.
"These workers and their families are living without the compensation they deserve because these agencies continue to point the finger at each other instead of taking responsibility," spokeswoman Amy Brundage said. "Secretary Chao herself acknowledged the problems with the program, and it's time questions are answered to stop this program from falling through the cracks."