[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 650 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 650

To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 
 Act of 2000 to provide for certain nuclear weapons program workers to 
   be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the compensation 
                    program established by that Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 15, 2007

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 
 Act of 2000 to provide for certain nuclear weapons program workers to 
   be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the compensation 
                    program established by that Act.

    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 ``Nevada Test Site Veterans' 
Compensation Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The contribution of the State of Nevada to the security 
        of the United States throughout the Cold War and since has been 
        unparalleled.
            (2) In 1950, President Harry S Truman designated what would 
        later be called the Nevada Test Site as the country's nuclear 
        proving grounds and, a month later, the first atmospheric test 
        at the Nevada Test Site was detonated.
            (3) The United States conducted 100 above-ground and 828 
        underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 
        1992.
            (4) Out of the 1,054 nuclear tests conducted in the United 
        States, 928, or 88 percent, were conducted at the Nevada Test 
        Site.
            (5) The Nevada Test Site has served, and continues to 
        serve, as the premier research, testing, and development site 
        for the nuclear defense capabilities of the United States.
            (6) The Nevada Test Site and its workers are an essential 
        and irreplaceable part of the Nation's defense capabilities.
            (7) Individuals working on Cold War-era nuclear weapons 
        programs were employed in facilities owned by the Federal 
        Government and the private sector producing and testing nuclear 
        weapons and engaging in related atomic energy defense 
        activities for the national defense beginning in the 1940s.
            (8) These Cold War atomic energy veterans helped to build 
        and test the nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent during 
        the Cold War, sacrificing their personal health and well-being 
        in service to the United States.
            (9) During the Cold War, many of these workers were exposed 
        to radiation, beryllium, and silica, and were placed in harm's 
        way by the Department of Energy and contractors, 
        subcontractors, and vendors of the Department without the 
        workers' knowledge or consent, without adequate radiation 
        monitoring, and without necessary protections from internal or 
        external occupational radiation exposure.
            (10) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
        Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.) (in this section 
        referred to as ``EEOICPA'') was enacted to ensure fairness and 
        equity for the men and women who, during the past 60 years, 
        performed duties uniquely related to the nuclear weapons 
        production and testing programs of the Department of Energy, 
        its predecessor agencies, and its contractors by establishing a 
        program that would provide timely, uniform, and adequate 
        compensation for beryllium- and radiation-related health 
        conditions.
            (11) Research by the Department of Energy, the National 
        Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), NIOSH 
        contractors, the President's Advisory Board on Radiation and 
        Worker Health, and congressional committees indicates that at 
        certain nuclear weapons facilities--
                    (A) workers were not adequately monitored for 
                internal or external exposure to ionizing radiation; 
                and
                    (B) records were not maintained, are not reliable, 
                are incomplete, or fail to indicate the radioactive 
                isotopes to which workers were exposed.
            (12) Due to the inequities posed by the factors described 
        above and the resulting harm to the workers, Congress 
        designated classes of atomic weapons employees at the Paducah, 
        Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K-25, Tennessee, and the 
        Amchitka Island, Alaska, sites as members of the Special 
        Exposure Cohort under EEOICPA.
            (13) It has become evident that it is not feasible to 
        estimate with sufficient accuracy in a timely manner the 
        radiation dose received by employees at the Department of 
        Energy facility at the Nevada Test Site for many reasons, 
        including the following:
                    (A) The NIOSH Technical Basis Document, the 
                threshold document for radiation dose reconstruction 
                under EEOICPA, has incomplete radionuclide lists.
                    (B) NIOSH has not demonstrated that it can estimate 
                dose from exposure to large, nonrespirable hot 
                particles.
                    (C) There are significant gaps in environmental 
                measurement and exposure data.
                    (D) Resuspension doses have been seriously 
                underestimated.
                    (E) NIOSH has not been able to estimate accurately 
                exposures to bomb assembly workers and radon levels.
                    (F) NIOSH has not demonstrated that it can 
                accurately sample tritiated water vapor.
                    (G) External dose records lack integrity.
                    (H) There are no beta dose data from before 1966.
                    (I) There are no neutron dose data from before 1966 
                and only partial data after such date.
                    (J) There are no internal dose data from before 
                late 1955 or 1956, and limited data until well into the 
                1960s.
                    (K) NIOSH has ignored exposure from more than a 
                dozen underground tests that vented, including Blanca, 
                Des Moines, Baneberry, Camphor, Diagonal Line, Riola, 
                Agrini, Midas Myth, Misty Rain, and Mighty Oak.
                    (L) Instead of monitoring individuals, groups were 
                monitored, resulting in unreliable personnel 
                monitoring.
            (14) Some Nevada Test Site workers, despite having worked 
        with significant amounts of radioactive materials and having 
        known exposures leading to serious health effects, have been 
        denied compensation under EEOICPA as a result of flawed 
        calculations based on records that are incomplete or in error, 
        or based on faulty assumptions and incorrect models.
            (15) Although basal cell carcinoma and chronic lymphocytic 
        leukemia are both radiogenic cancers that employees at the 
        Nevada Test Site may have contracted in the scope of their 
        work, EEOICPA currently will not include individuals with basal 
        cell carcinoma as members of the Special Exposure Cohort, nor 
        does it provide for compensation for employees with chronic 
        lymphocytic leukemia.

SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF CERTAIN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS IN SPECIAL 
              EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL 
              ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 3621 of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (9), by adding at the end the following 
        new subparagraph:
                    ``(C) An individual described in paragraph 
                (14)(D).''; and
            (2) in paragraph (14), by adding at the end the following 
        new subparagraph:
                    ``(D) The employee was so employed at the Nevada 
                Test Site or other similar sites located in Nevada 
                during the period beginning on January 1, 1950, and 
                ending on December 31, 1993, and contracted an 
                occupational illness, basal cell carcinoma, or chronic 
                lymphocytic leukemia, and, during such employment--
                            ``(i) was present during an atmospheric or 
                        underground nuclear test or performed 
                        drillbacks, tunnel re-entry, or clean-up work 
                        following such a test (without regard to the 
                        duration of employment);
                            ``(ii) was present at an event involving 
                        the venting of an underground test or during a 
                        planned or unplanned radiation release (without 
                        regard to the duration of employment);
                            ``(iii) was present during testing or post-
                        test activities related to nuclear rocket or 
                        ramjet engine testing at the Nevada Test Site 
                        (without regard to the duration of employment);
                            ``(iv) was assigned to work at Area 51 or 
                        other classified program areas of the Nevada 
                        Test Site (without regard to the duration of 
                        employment); or
                            ``(v) was employed at the Nevada Test Site, 
                        and was employed in a job activity that--
                                    ``(I) was monitored for exposure to 
                                ionizing radiation; or
                                    ``(II) was comparable to a job that 
                                is, was, or should have been monitored 
                                for exposure to ionizing radiation at 
                                the Nevada Test Site.''.
    (b) Deadline for Claims Adjudication.--Claims for compensation 
under section 3621(14)(D) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000, as added by subsection (a), shall be 
adjudicated and a final decision issued--
            (1) in the case of claims pending as of the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, not later than 30 days after such date; 
        and
            (2) in the case of claims filed after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, not later than 30 days after the date of 
        such filing.
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