[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1306 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1306

 To provide for payment to the survivor or surviving family members of 
    compensation otherwise payable to a contractor employee of the 
Department of Energy who dies after application for compensation under 
 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
                     2000, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 19, 2009

 Mr. Bunning (for himself and Mr. Alexander) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for payment to the survivor or surviving family members of 
    compensation otherwise payable to a contractor employee of the 
Department of Energy who dies after application for compensation under 
 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
                     2000, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION TO SURVIVORS OF DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 
              CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES.

    (a) In General.--Section 3672 of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7385s-1) is amended 
to read as follows:

``SEC. 3672. COMPENSATION TO BE PROVIDED.

    ``Subject to the other provisions of this subtitle:
            ``(1) Contractor employees.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A covered DOE contractor 
                employee shall receive contractor employee compensation 
                under this subtitle in accordance with section 3673.
                    ``(B) Compensation after death of contractor 
                employee.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Except as provided 
                        paragraph (2)(B), if the death of a contractor 
                        employee occurs after the employee applies for 
                        compensation under this subtitle but before 
                        such compensation is paid, the amount of 
                        compensation described in clause (ii) shall be 
                        paid to a survivor (as that term is used in 
                        section 3674) of the employee or, if the 
                        employee has no such survivors, to the 
                        surviving family members of the employee in 
                        accordance with the procedures set forth in 
                        section 3628(e)(1).
                            ``(ii) Amount of compensation.--The amount 
                        of compensation described in this clause is the 
                        amount of compensation the contractor employee 
                        would have received pursuant to section 
                        3673(a), except that if the Secretary cannot 
                        determine the minimum impairment rating of the 
                        employee under paragraph (1) of such section as 
                        a result of the death of the employee, such 
                        compensation shall not include compensation 
                        pursuant to such paragraph.
            ``(2) Survivors.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Except as provided in 
                subparagraph (B) or paragraph (1)(B), a survivor of a 
                covered DOE contractor employee shall receive 
                contractor employee compensation under this subtitle in 
                accordance with section 3674.
                    ``(B) Election of contractor employee compensation 
                or survivor compensation.--A survivor who is otherwise 
                eligible to receive compensation pursuant to both 
                subparagraph (A) and paragraph (1)(B) shall not receive 
                compensation pursuant to both subparagraph (A) and 
                paragraph (1)(B), but shall receive compensation 
                pursuant to subparagraph (A) or paragraph (1)(B), as 
                elected by the survivor.
                    ``(C) Compensation after death of survivor.--If the 
                death of a survivor occurs after the survivor applies 
                for compensation under this subtitle but before such 
                compensation is paid and, in the case of compensation 
                pursuant to paragraph (1)(B), there are no other 
                survivors (as that term is used in section 3674) of the 
                employee, the amount of compensation the survivor would 
                have received under this section shall be paid to the 
                surviving family members of the employee in accordance 
                with the procedures set forth in section 3628(e)(1).''.
    (b) Applicability.--The provisions of section 3672 of the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 
U.S.C. 7385s-1), as amended by subsection (a), shall apply to 
applications for compensation under subtitle E of such Act filed 
before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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