WASHINGTON - Senators complained Friday that the Energy Department is moving too slowly to compensate sick nuclear weapons workers.

Agency officials responded that Congress hasn't provided enough money.

"It's a complete disaster," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Congress established the program three years ago and put the Energy Department in charge of getting aid to government contract workers exposed to toxic substances while building the nation's atomic bombs at Hanford and elsewhere.

Reversing a decades-old policy, the department was told to help the workers file claims under state compensation systems and direct its contractors not to fight the claims.

Congressional auditors, however, found a seven-year backlog of unprocessed claims because the department has acted so slowly.

About 20,000 workers have filed for help. So far, the Energy Department has told a little more than 100 of them whether evidence shows their illnesses were caused by their jobs.

Energy Undersecretary Robert Card said Congress should give the agency more money if lawmakers want the program to move faster.

Congress approved $25 million for the program this year and has appropriated only $16 million for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. Card said almost three times that amount was necessary to clear the claims backlog.

Lawmakers were skeptical that money alone would fix the problems.

Several senators said they would try to move the program to the Labor Department, which has more experience running compensation programs.