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ESA News Release: [05/26/2005]
Contact Name: Dolline Hatchet/Pamela Groover
Phone Number: 202-693-4651/202-693-4676
Release Number: 05-0944-NAT

U. S. Labor Department Announces Interim Final Regulations for Energy Workers Compensation Program

Meets Congressional Deadline for Issuing Regulations

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced today that the Department of Labor (DOL) has met the deadline to establish regulations for the newly created Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

"The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that sick workers eligible for this program and their families get payments as soon as possible," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "We had a very short and compressed timeframe to get these regulations out. I'm pleased these regulations are finished on time. As I have said many times, I am totally committed to helping the workers get the help they deserve under this program."

Four years ago, Congress passed the EEOICPA to compensate workers for illnesses many suffered while working in federal nuclear facilities. The Department of Labor took the lead in helping these workers and their families. Recently, Congress gave the Department of Labor added responsibility for getting benefits to workers and their families through Part E, which replaces the old Part D, previously administered by the Department of Energy. Under the terms of the law passed by Congress, the Department of Labor was required to issue regulations for implementing the new program within 210 days of enactment, a requirement which has been met.

The interim final regulations that will be published today on the department's Web site with publication to follow in the Federal Register, establish procedures for filing applications and determining compensation eligibility under the Energy Workers Compensation Program. Although the interim regulations provide a 60-day public comment period, they will go into effect immediately, enabling the department to process all claims under the new program. DOL will issue a final regulation after a thorough review of the comments received.

The new rule allows the department to determine the eligibility of all claimants under Part E. To speed the start-up of the new program, DOL began making certain straightforward survivor benefit payments under a preliminary procedure it issued in December 2004. To date, more than $53 million has been paid to over 430 recipients under the new program. However, until this rule had been published, the department was unable to carry out more complex aspects of the amendment, including wage-loss and physical impairment determinations. With the rule in effect, all of the roughly 25,000 occupational illness claims that were transferred from the previous Department of Energy program, as well as thousands of new Part E claims now being received, can be addressed.

The Labor Department also administers Part B of EEOICPA, and has issued more than $1 billion in compensation and medical payments to over 14,000 claimants under that part of the program. Pursuant to the October 2004 amendments, the interim final regulations expand eligibility for Part B benefits by providing for coverage at "Atomic Weapons Employer" sites during periods of residual radiation contamination following Department of Energy contract work.

Read the Interim Final Regulations.