Legislation that would have made Hanford Site workers more likely to be awarded workers’ compensation has failed to pass out of a Washington state Senate committee. The deadline passed Wednesday for Senate committees to send House policy bills to the full Senate, under the Washington state Legislature’s 2017 session “cutoff calendar.” The state Senate Committee on Commerce, Labor, and Sports held a hearing on the Hanford workers’ compensation bill last week, but failed to schedule a vote on Substitute Senate House Bill 1723 before the deadline. The bill had earlier passed the state House in a 69-29 vote.
Republican Rep. Larry Haler, who sponsored the bill, said some state senators believed the proposal was too broad, leaving the legislation without enough support to advance if a vote was held. Haler worked at Hanford for 40 years and represents the state district for key communities near the Department of Energy site. He plans to meet with supporters and opponents of the bill after the legislative session ends to discuss reworking the proposal for consideration in a future session. Haler also is pursuing more Washington state Department of Ecology oversight of workers’ compensation and tank farm safety at Hanford.
The proposed bill would have required the state Department of Labor and Industries to assume a wide range of illnesses were caused by working at Hanford if a worker spent as little as eight hours anywhere on the site. Now workers must provide medical proof linking an illness to a workplace exposure to the Department of Labor and Industries, which makes the final decision on workers’ compensation claims.
