Congressman Zach Wamp and a bipartisan group of House members are pushing the U.S. House to provide help this year for employees in Oak Ridge and the rest of the DOE complex who became sick while working in government nuclear facilities.

Wamp and five other House members want to add an amendment calling for action this year to the Defense Authorization bill that will be considered by the full U.S. House this week.

"We're doing the best we can at this time, but it's not enough. We've got to persevere," Wamp told the U.S. House Rules Committee on Tuesday. Wamp and others were asking the Rules Committee to let their amendment be considered as part of the Defense Authorization bill. Late Tuesday, The Rules Committee said that the amendment proposed by Congressman Wamp and others can be considered during the debate on the Defense Authorization bill.

Appearing before the Rules Committee earlier Tuesday, Wamp said affected U.S. Department of Energy workers should get help promptly - because it is unequivocal now that these workers have been adversely affected.

"They are indeed Cold War veterans, and from beryllium, radiation to other causes, there are clearly workers that have experienced significant health problems as a result of their dedication and service to our country as we built up the nuclear legacy," Wamp said.

He said he hopes that having the amendment considered by the House will help resolve a problem that is delaying action on getting help for the workers - deciding which of several committees in Congress should have jurisdiction over any bill to provide relief for the workers.

Wamp said he hopes the committees can decide soon which one has jurisdiction so a relief bill for the workers can be passed quickly. "We have seen too many times bills get caught up in this multi-jurisdictional quagmire. And we've got to break through, and it's going to take leadership from the top," Wamp said. "I think that if the Speaker (of the House Dennis Hastert) and others would help, we could work through this; but that's our biggest conflict right now. Otherwise, we would be offering an amendment today to attach the benefits package to the authorization bill. But because of this jurisdictional problem, we can only offer this resolution today."

Federal Employees Compensation Programs cover nuclear workers who are actually government employees. But these programs do not cover people employed by government contractors. The amendment sponsored by Wamp and the others says that contract employees, such as most Oak Ridge workers, "should have efficient, uniform and adequate compensation" for job related health problems caused by exposure to hazards, including radiation and beryllium.

The amendment notes that more than two dozen scientific findings in the last 20 years have documented that Department of Energy Workers experience increased risks of dying from cancer and other diseases.

"We need to do much more than this. So at least give us this for now," Wamp told the Rules Committee. "Later, we are going to need a whole lot more, and we hope to enlist the leadership of both parties of both bodies at the highest level to support a benefits package that will honor this service to our country of these Cold War veterans."

Joining with Wamp in sponsoring the amendment are U.S. Reps. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nevada, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa.; Ted Strickland, D-Ohio; and Mark Udall, D-Colo.