[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3864 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3864

  To provide coverage under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
    Compensation Program for individuals employed at atomic weapons 
     employer facilities during periods of residual contamination.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 26, 2004

    Ms. Slaughter (for herself, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Strickland, and Mr. 
  Whitfield) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
    Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined 
 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as 
        fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide coverage under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
    Compensation Program for individuals employed at atomic weapons 
     employer facilities during periods of residual contamination.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Residual Radioactive Contamination 
Compensation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Beginning in the early 1940s, the Department of Energy 
        and its predecessors, the Atomic Energy Commission and the 
        Manhattan Engineering District, relied upon hundreds of 
        private-sector factories and laboratories to develop, test, and 
        produce atomic weapons for use by the military, and these 
        facilities became contaminated with radioactive materials 
        during the atomic weapons production process.
            (2) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
        Program Act of 2000 (in this section referred to as 
        ``EEOICPA'') provides health care and lump-sum benefits for 
        radiation-related cancers and other illnesses to certain 
        covered workers made sick while they toiled in the nation's 
        nuclear weapons factories, including vendor facilities. EEOICPA 
        defines these private-sector vendor facilities as ``atomic 
        weapons employer facilities'', and employees working in such 
        facilities while their employers were under contract to process 
        nuclear weapons materials are defined as ``atomic weapons 
        employees''.
            (3) Many of the atomic weapons employer facilities were not 
        properly decontaminated after processing radioactive materials 
        such as thorium, uranium, and radium and retained significant 
        levels of contamination. Workers who were hired and employed in 
        such atomic weapons employer facilities after the date that 
        contracts ended for production were potentially exposed to 
        significant amounts of radiation. Congress was not aware of the 
        presence of residual radioactive contamination in these 
        facilities when it enacted EEOICPA, thus inadvertently denying 
        coverage under the law to those who were unwittingly exposed to 
        radiation left over from nuclear weapons activities.
            (4) In December 2001, the National Defense Authorization 
        Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-107) was enacted, 
        which required in section 3151(b) that the National Institute 
        for Occupational Safety and Health study and issue a final 
        report to Congress by December 2002 describing which of the 
        atomic weapons employer facilities had significant residual 
        radioactive contamination remaining in them after processing 
        materials for use in atomic weapons and during what time 
        periods such radioactive contamination remained.
            (5) In October 2003, the Institute issued a report, titled 
        ``Report on Residual Radioactive and Beryllium Contamination in 
        Atomic Weapons Employer and Beryllium Vendor Facilities''. The 
        report found that, out of 219 atomic weapons employer 
        facilities--
                    (A) 97 (44 percent) of such facilities have 
                potential for significant residual radioactive 
                contamination outside of the periods in which atomic 
                weapons-related production occurred;
                    (B) 88 (40 percent) of such facilities have little 
                potential for significant residual radioactive 
                contamination outside of the periods in which atomic 
                weapons-related production occurred; and
                    (C) 34 (16 percent) of such facilities have 
                insufficient information to make a determination.
            (6) Congress is now aware that workers were employed in a 
        substantial number of atomic weapons employer facilities years 
        after the Manhattan Project ended. These workers were 
        potentially harmed by legacy residual radioactive contamination 
        that permeated the walls, the floors, and the air of their 
        worksites well after the Atomic Energy Commission and the 
        Department of Energy terminated contracts for production 
        activities. This exposure to residual radioactive contamination 
        took place without the knowledge or consent of these workers.
            (7) Congress therefore declares that, based on the 
        scientific assessment by the Institute, those workers hired and 
        employed in such facilities during the period after Cold War 
        production stopped but during which the Institute found there 
        was significant residual radioactive contamination should be 
        defined as ``atomic weapons employees'' under EEOICPA, should 
        be eligible to apply for compensation under subtitle B of 
        EEOICPA, and should have their claims evaluated on the same 
        basis as those atomic weapons employees who were employed 
        during the period when processing of radioactive materials was 
        underway as part of the atomic weapons program.

SEC. 3. COVERAGE UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS 
              COMPENSATION PROGRAM OF INDIVIDUALS EMPLOYED AT ATOMIC 
              WEAPONS EMPLOYER FACILITIES DURING PERIODS OF RESIDUAL 
              CONTAMINATION.

    Paragraph (3) of section 3621 of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l) is amended 
to read as follows:
            ``(3) The term `atomic weapons employee' means any of the 
        following:
                    ``(A) An individual employed at an atomic weapons 
                employer facility during a period when the employer was 
                processing or producing, for the use by the United 
                States, material that emitted radiation and was used in 
                the production of an atomic weapon, excluding uranium 
                mining and milling.
                    ``(B) An individual employed--
                            ``(i) at an atomic weapons employer 
                        facility with respect to which the National 
                        Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 
                        in its report dated October 2003 and titled 
                        `Report on Residual Radioactive and Beryllium 
                        Contamination at Atomic Weapons Employer 
                        Facilities and Beryllium Vendor Facilities', or 
                        any update to that report, found that there is 
                        a potential for significant residual 
                        contamination outside of the period in which 
                        weapons-related production occurred; and
                            ``(ii) during a period, as specified in 
                        such report or any update to such report, of 
                        significant residual contamination at that 
                        facility.''.

SEC. 4. UPDATE TO REPORT.

    In each of 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Director of the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health shall submit to Congress, 
not later than December 31 of that year, an update to the report 
required by section 3151(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act 
for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-107; 42 U.S.C. 7384 note). Each 
such update shall--
            (1) for each facility for which such report, or any update 
        to such report, found that insufficient information was 
        available to determine whether significant residual 
        contamination was present, determine whether significant 
        residual contamination was present;
            (2) for each facility for which such report, or any update 
        to such report, found that significant residual contamination 
        remained present as of the date of the report, determine the 
        date on which such contamination ceased to be present;
            (3) for each facility for which such report, or any update 
        to such report, found that significant residual contamination 
        was present but for which the Director has been unable to 
        determine the extent to which such contamination is 
        attributable to beryllium or atomic weapons-related activities, 
        identify the specific dates of coverage attributable to such 
        activities and, in so identifying, presume that such 
        contamination is attributable to such activities until there is 
        evidence of decontamination of residual contamination 
        identified with beryllium or atomic weapons-related activities; 
        and
            (4) if new information that pertains to the report has been 
        made available to the Director since that report was submitted, 
        identify and describe such information.

SEC. 5. PUBLICATION IN FEDERAL REGISTER.

    The Director shall ensure that the report referred to in section 4, 
and each update required by section 4, are published in the Federal 
Register not later than 15 days after being released.
                                 <all>