WASHINGTON — As President Bush’s health chief, Tommy Thompson proudly trumpeted millions of taxpayer dollars to help workers sickened by the attacks of September 11, 2001, even amid complaints that his agency wasn’t doing enough.

Now, Mr. Thompson’s private company has won an $11 million contract to treat some of those same workers — the latest twist in a fitful government effort to determine how many people were made ill by the toxic debris — and to care for them.

The contract awarded by the Centers for Disease Control is aimed at tracking the health of between 4,000 and 6,000 workers who live outside the New York City area, where a separate health-monitoring program is in place. The CDC is part of the Health and Human Services Department, which Mr. Thompson headed in Bush’s first term.

Internal e-mails obtained by the Associated Press show that the one-year contract went to Logistics Health, Inc., a La Crosse, Wis.-based company where Mr. Thompson is president.

While secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Thompson was pressed by New York lawmakers to take a more active and aggressive role in tracking and treating September 11-related health problems.

“It is ironic that former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson’s firm won the contract to provide the services, given the history of delay from the Bush administration when he was secretary and now,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York said. “But I am glad these heroes are finally getting the help they deserve.”

A spokeswoman for Logistics Health did not immediately return calls seeking comment.