[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 585 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 585

 To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the 
       course of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 9, 2005

  Mr. Salazar introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the 
       course of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.

    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 ``Rocky Flats Special Exposure Cohort 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
        Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.) (hereinafter in 
        this section referred to as the ``Act'') was enacted to ensure 
        fairness and equity for the civilian men and women who, during 
        the past 50 years, performed duties uniquely related to the 
        nuclear weapons production and testing programs of the 
        Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies by 
        establishing a program that would provide efficient, uniform, 
        and adequate compensation for beryllium-related health 
        conditions and radiation-related health conditions.
            (2) The Act provides a process for consideration of claims 
        for compensation by individuals who were employed at relevant 
        times at various locations, but also included provisions 
        designating employees at certain other locations as members of 
        a special exposure cohort whose claims are subject to a less-
        detailed administrative process.
            (3) The Act also authorizes the President, upon 
        recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker 
        Health, to designate additional classes of employees at 
        Department of Energy facilities as members of the special 
        exposure cohort if the President determines that--
                    (A) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient 
                accuracy the radiation dose that the class received; 
                and
                    (B) there is a reasonable likelihood that the 
                radiation dose may have endangered the health of 
                members of the class.
            (4) It has become evident that it is not feasible to 
        estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose received 
        by employees at the Department of Energy facility in Colorado 
        known as the Rocky Flats site for the following reasons:
                    (A) Many worker exposures were unmonitored over the 
                lifetime of the plant at the Rocky Flats site. Even in 
                2004, a former worker from the 1950s was monitored 
                under the former radiation worker program of the 
                Department of Energy and found to have a significant 
                internal deposition that had been undetected and 
                unrecorded for more than 50 years.
                    (B) No lung counter for detecting and measuring 
                plutonium and americium in the lungs existed at Rocky 
                Flats until the late 1960s. Without this equipment, the 
                very insoluble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be 
                detected, and a large number of workers had inhalation 
                exposures that went undetected and unmeasured.
                    (C) Exposure to neutron radiation was not monitored 
                until the late 1950s, and most of those measurements 
                through 1970 have been found to be in error. In some 
                areas of the plant the neutron doses were as much as 2 
                to 10 times as great as the gamma doses received by 
                workers, but only gamma doses were recorded. The old 
                neutron films are being re-read, but those doses have 
                not yet been added to the workers' records or been used 
                in the dose reconstructions for Rocky Flats workers 
                carried out by the National Institute for Occupational 
                Safety and Health.
                    (D) Radiation exposures for many workers were not 
                measured or were missing and, as a result, the records 
                are incomplete or estimated doses were assigned. There 
                are many inaccuracies in the exposure records that the 
                Institute is using to determine whether Rocky Flats 
                workers qualify for compensation under the Act.
                    (E) The model that has been used for dose 
                reconstruction by the Institute in determining whether 
                Rocky Flats workers qualify for compensation under the 
                Act may be in error. The default values used for 
                particle size and solubility of the internally 
                deposited plutonium in workers are subject to 
                reasonable scientific debate. Use of erroneous values 
                could substantially underestimate the actual internal 
                doses for claimants.
            (5) Some Rocky Flats workers, despite having worked with 
        tons of plutonium and having known exposures leading to serious 
        health effects, have been denied compensation under the Act as 
        a result of potentially flawed calculations based on records 
        that are incomplete or in error as well as the use of 
        potentially flawed models.
            (6) Achieving the purposes of the Act with respect to 
        workers at Rocky Flats is more likely to be achieved if claims 
        by those workers are subject to the administrative procedures 
        applicable to members of the special exposure cohort.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to revise the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act so as to 
include certain past and present Rocky Flats workers as members of the 
special exposure cohort.

SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT.

    (a) In General.--Section 3621(14) of the Energy Employees 
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 
7384l(14)) is amended by adding at the end of paragraph (14) the 
following:
                    ``(D) The employee was so employed as a Department 
                of Energy employee or a Department of Energy contractor 
                employee for a number of work days aggregating at least 
                250 work days before January 1, 2006, at the Rocky 
                Flats site in Colorado.''.
    (b) Reapplication.--A claim that an individual qualifies, by reason 
of subparagraph (D) of section 3621(14) of that Act (as added by 
subsection (a)), for compensation or benefits under that Act shall be 
considered for compensation or benefits, notwithstanding any denial of 
any other claim for compensation with respect to that individual.
                                 <all>