Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Lawmakers from Colorado and Washington are calling for changes in a troubled U.S. Department of Labor program that is supposed to compensate former federal nuclear workers for illnesses caused by exposure to toxins and radiation but typically only results in years of delays in the claims process and denials for roughly two of every three claimants.
The effort comes as U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, began pushing last week for the Department of Labor to reopen the case of Michael Fellinger, a former Ames Laboratory worker whose lung disease claim has been repeatedly denied by the EEOICP. Fellinger died in 2008. While Harkin requested reconsideration of this particular claim, he stated in his letter that he felt the denials Fellinger’s family have received are “illustrative of flaws in the administration of the program.”
Last week, Senators and members of Congress from Colorado signed a letter addressed to Department of U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius on behalf of nuclear workers and their families, formally requesting rulemaking proceedings to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP).
The program launched in 2001 and was created to provide “timely, uniform and adequate” compensation to all the nation’s nuclear workers, many of whom were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and toxic substances while working at Department of Energy sites and contract facilities. But according to frustrated claimants and medical examiners, red tape and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles stand between those who are sick and the benefits they were promised for their years of service.
“While we are mindful of the need to review claims and make sure that compensation is due, we also believe that many deserving claimants are encountering significant obstacles in this process — obstacles that we believe result in the delay or even denial of legitimate claims,” the letter said, which was signed by Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennett, along with five members of Colorado’s congressional delegation.
The Department of Labor and the Department of Energy also received a letter from Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington on behalf of workers in their state. In their letter, the Senators request a progress update on EEOICP’s adoption of recommendations from a March 2010 GAO report that said more transparency and oversight was needed in the program.
A group of legislators, including Harkin, demanded the GAO investigation in 2008 after widely published media criticism of the program. Legislation to reform the program, the Charlie Wolf Nuclear Worker’s Compensation Act, was introduced into the Senate in March of last year, but has not moved out of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, which Harkin chairs.
The letter from Colorado legislators asks Solis to use the Charlie Wolf Act as a guideline for administrative changes.
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