Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., one of the main authors of the law creating the new entitlement, sent Chao a letter laying out the reasons lawmakers want her agency to have control. The new program was modeled after a large worker compensation program that the Labor Department already runs, he wrote. Chao wants the Justice Department to take control of the new program. In a letter to the White House and again in a telephone conversation with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Chao said she believes the Justice Department has better experience in this type of program. Justice administers a program that gives one-time payments to sick uranium miners, millers and people who were downwind of nuclear tests.
Eligibility is determined by the length of time people spent at any of the affected places.
If Chao succeeds in moving the new program out of her department, it would mean that workers who contracted chronic beryllium disease while on the government payroll would ask the Labor Department for benefits. Those who contracted while employed by a government contractor would have to go elsewhere to have their claims evaluated. An aide to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that senator was supporting Thompson's effort. In addition, a bipartisan group of House members, Voinovich and Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, sent letters lobbying to keep the Labor Department in charge of the new program.