Lisa Murkowski

I appreciate that. Thank you.

I think certainly Senator Bunning and myself are in total agreement that it is not working, we have got to figure out a way to fix it.

U. S. Senator Lisa Murkowski and Congressman Don Young from Alaska have both asked Secretary Abraham to resolve the willing payor issue.

So this goes back to your opening statement, when you said we need to communicate what our program is all about...

It seems like what we are doing is we are setting people up here and giving them some hope...

Is the DOE defending its physicians panel determinations when they are challenged by insurance companies, and if not why not?

This goes back to our discussion about resolving the willing payor issue.

Well, how can you get the claims processed with no understanding on the other end as to how you are going to make the payment?

I might suggest that I do not believe it was Congress's intent that we just run people through a bureaucratic nightmare just so that they can say we processed their claims.

So if it is none, if it is zero--and we have also made that assumption, that there are none--what was the purpose of putting this language in the MOU?

Well, I am looking at the language that was pulled from the MOU and the language as I am reading provides that: 'Provided that, consistent with subpart D, such a determination will prevent DOE and may prevent a DOE contractor from…

Well, if there is not, I would certainly hope we are not leading people down a path that is obviously very difficult...

Have you advised the Alaskan claimants that there is no willing payor?

Do you have, does DOE have, a specific individual who Alaskans can contact to determine the status of their claims and get other questions answered?

I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I was assured [by DOE] that the contractor would be notified and asked to accept primary liability for my claim and would also be asked not to raise any affirmative defenses in my case.

These workers and their survivors are entitled to far better treatment then many of them have endured.

Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude.

This is simply unacceptable. Let me repeat--this is unacceptable.

I'd like to thank Chairman Dominici for holding this hearing today on the implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illnesses Compensation Program Act.

The importance of this issue led me to co-sponsor the Grassley-Murkowski amendment.

The numbers and the statistics, they are not acceptable. They do not work.

This amendment is intended to address one of the two major failures in the implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act.

Essentially, they are being litigated to death, which is absolutely unacceptable, just unacceptable.

We must make sure that claimants found eligible for benefits are promptly compensated.