Tommy Thompson awarded contract to treat 9/11 first responders after failing to protect them>>

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/04/tommy-thompson-911/


After Failing To Protect 9/11 First Responders From Toxic Threats, Thompson Awarded Contract To Treat Them»


Tommy Thompson served as President Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services from January 2001 to 2005. It was during his tenure, after the 9/11 attacks, that the Bush administration largely ignored the health risks facing first responders at the World Trade Center site.

Doctors concluded that the dust there was basically a “toxic soup,” leading to serious health problems for workers. Then-EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman was also accused of lying about the air quality. Approximately 40,000 people were exposed to the dust, and “71,000 have enrolled in a long-term health monitoring program for people with and without health problems.”

Many of these first responders have since been unable to attain health coverage from either their insurers or the U.S. government. As the AP notes, Thompson was “criticized for not doing enough” to help these workers.

Yet apparently, the Bush administration believes Thompson did a hecukva job dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. The Centers for Disease Control has awarded Thompson an $11 million contract to treat some of those very same workers who became sick on Thompson’s watch:

The contract awarded by the Centers for Disease Control is aimed at tracking the health of between 4,000 and 6,000 workers who live outside the New York City area, where a separate health monitoring program is in place. The CDC is part of the Health and Human Services Department, which Thompson headed in Bush’s first term.

Internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show that the one-year contract went to Logistics Health, Inc., a La Crosse, Wis.-based company where Thompson is president.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) responded, “It is ironic that former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson’s firm won the contract to provide the services, given the history of delay from the Bush administration when he was secretary and now.”

[angstlessk]

1. dear msw maloney..if by ironic you mean criminal...YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!

[SalmonChantedEvening]

2. Henhouses Inc.

Fox from Wisconsin, have at it.

sig.line.

[rusty quoin]

3. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the last 7 years has been a steady stream of irony. n/t

[sandnsea]

4. No it is not ironic, it's horrific

The people who illegally put these workers at risk are going to be trusted to monitor the results of their inaction?? When will this shit stop.