In many ways, the men who extracted uranium from mines out West for America's nuclear weapons program were on the front line of the Cold War. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell them. As patriotic as many of them were, it was not their intention to bear the brunt of diseases, many of them terminal, brought on by prolonged exposure to uranium's deadly properties.

To add insult to injury, the fund set up by Congress to pay medical benefits to miners and those living downwind from nuclear test sites has run out at a time when claims for coverage have been growing steadily.

Under 1990's Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, sick and dying miners were entitled to one-time payouts of $100,000. Last year, Congress increased medical benefits and the payout to $150,000. The fund was quickly depleted by an expanded pool of miners and residents who suddenly qualified for compensation under the more liberal guidelines.

Demand for compensation is unabated despite the program's sudden insolvency. Congress hasn't been much help. After increasing the benefits package a decade after the program began, Congress has refused to replenish the fund until the details of President Bush's proposed tax cut and the fate of the federal surplus have been worked out.

The Justice Department, which administers the program, has been hounding Congress since the fund went belly-up last year. In lieu of cash, the Justice Department is issuing IOUs to applicants who have been approved for benefits. No one knows when those recently approved will be able to redeem their IOUs for medical treatment.

At least 200 people are currently in limbo, forcing the program to go begging for an emergency infusion of $84 million. Still, even that won't cover the needs of current members and the estimated 1,050 new benefit requests expected by year's end.

One wonders what could be more politically expedient than Congress funding one of its own mandates for a population of Americans that has suffered much while doing its duty. If the sight of miners carrying portable oxygen canisters and IOUs isn't sufficient to spur immediate congressional action, what is?

If only the miners had had the good sense to ask for a tax cut. Maybe then they'd have seen some action.