Feds' suit against Hanford law 'a depraved action' -- Inslee
A federal government lawsuit to overturn Washington's new law protecting health care for Hanford workers is "a depraved action" bespeaking "a record of depravity" by the U.S. Department of Energy toward nuclear reservation workers, Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday.
The feds' suit, filed in Eastern Washington federal court, challenges a new Washington law that presumes when nuclear cleanup workers contract respiratory diseases and some cancers, the illness is work related.
It sets up a federal-state battle between the Trump administration and the state of Washington.
Hitherto, the federal government had required that workers prove that their illnesses were employment-related. Attorney General Bob Ferguson noted that workers have died during the torturous, drawn-out process.
"There is (now) the presumption that workers became ill due to something at work," said Ferguson, referring to a law that passed the Legislature with bipartisan support.
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Feds-suit-against-Hanford-law-a-depraved-13458389.php#photo-5648904
