Report: State to Fight Lawsuit Over Hanford Presumption

Thursday, December 13, 2018 | 0

Officials in Washington state vowed to defend a new law creating a presumption of compensability for cancer, heart conditions and breathing problems suffered by workers at the federal Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The feds on Monday filed a lawsuit saying HB 1723, which creates the presumption, amounts to an impermissible attempt by the state to regulate the federal government. The complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington also says the law unfairly discriminates against the federal government by applying the presumption only to federal workers.

Gov. Jay Inslee called the lawsuit “depraved” during a news conference on Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the lawsuit is based on an incorrect interpretation of state and federal law. He said the state would prevail in fending off the lawsuit.

Ferguson reportedly said without the presumption, federal workers who develop cancer, heart problems or breathing difficulty after exposure to toxic vapors are required to prove that their condition “was not caused by something else in their lives.”

With the case of federal workers at Hanford, HB 1723 makes the federal government liable for claims unless it can prove the condition was caused by something else in the lives of the workers.