BILL REQ. #:  H-4511.2 

Read first time 01/22/10.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan require thousands of civilian contractors to support our military; and
     WHEREAS, The Defense Base Act of 1941 requires government contractors to purchase workers' compensation insurance policies for their employees to cover injuries, including combat injuries and death, when working outside the United States; and
     WHEREAS, The War Hazards Compensation Act of 1942 allows reimbursement to carriers for the cost of combat injuries and deaths, plus a fifteen percent administrative fee; and
     WHEREAS, The government pays private insurance carriers more than four hundred million dollars annually for this insurance; and
     WHEREAS, Private insurance carriers are making profits of up to 35 percent from these policies; and
     WHEREAS, An obvious conflict of two federal laws is inadvertently costing the government hundreds of millions of dollars, and will continue to cost hundreds of millions of dollars every year into the foreseeable future;
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Defense Base Act be reformed to prevent double payment to insurance carriers.
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.