Sick Rocky Flats workers are hoping a federal panel that's been meeting behind closed doors on the fate of their compensation claims will keep those doors shut - at least for a few more days.

On Friday, at the workers' request, seven members of Colorado's congressional delegation asked the U.S. health secretary to delay any decision from the panel until a new administration takes office next week.

Outgoing Health Secretary Michael Leavitt appointed the panel more than a year ago to review an appeal by sick workers rejected for streamlined aid for cancers and lung disease.

The workers have not heard a word about their appeal since last February, when Leavitt declined to give them a timeline for a decision or the names of the three people he'd appointed.

"It seems odd that a panel could even be conducting a review with no input from the workers," said Jennifer Thompson, a former Flats worker who filed the appeal on behalf of thousands of her fellow workers.

Much of Colorado's Congressional delegation agreed.

In their letter to Leavitt, the lawmakers said the "process has been plagued by poor communication with the petitioner, a serious lack of transparency and significant data and record discrepancies."

The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Ken Salazar and Mark Udall, and Reps. Diana DeGette, John Salazar, Ed Perlmutter, Jared Polis, and Betsy Markey. All are Democrats.

A Health and Human Services spokeswoman said the department was not aware of the letter. More than 22,000 people worked at the now-demolished Rocky Flats site where, for nearly half a century, they made plutonium triggers.

In 2000, Congress created the Energy Employee Occupational Illness and Compensation Act to compensate sick nuclear weapons workers or their survivors nationwide. The program has been fraught with problems.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is probing problems with the program that were outlined earlier this year in a Rocky Mountain News special report called Deadly Denial.

frankL@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5091