[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 916 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 916

To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 
 Act of 2000 to include certain former nuclear weapons program workers 
in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational 
         Illness Compensation Program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 28, 2009

Mr. Schumer (for himself and Mrs. Gillibrand) 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 include certain former nuclear weapons program workers 
in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational 
         Illness Compensation Program, 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 ``Ed Walker Memorial Act for 
Improvements to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
Program''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Beginning in the mid-1940s, workers at hundreds of 
        facilities owned by the Federal Government and entities in the 
        private sector produced and processed radioactive materials for 
        use in the nuclear weapons program of the United States.
            (2) Those workers at nuclear weapons facilities helped to 
        build the nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent to the 
        Soviet Union during the Cold War, but many of those workers 
        paid a high price in terms of their health.
            (3) During the Cold War, many workers at nuclear weapons 
        facilities were exposed to radiation and placed in harm's way 
        by the Department of Energy and contractors, subcontractors, 
        and vendors of the Department--
                    (A) without the knowledge and consent of the 
                workers;
                    (B) without adequate radiation monitoring; and
                    (C) without necessary protections from internal or 
                external occupational radiation exposures.
            (4) Because of the inequities described in paragraph (3) 
        and the resulting potential harm to workers employed at nuclear 
        weapons facilities, Congress designated classes of Cold War-era 
        workers at the Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge 
        K-25, and Amchitka Island test sites as members of the Special 
        Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
        Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.).
            (5) The contribution of the State of New York to the 
        security of the United States throughout the Cold War was very 
        significant.
            (6) Thirty-six former atomic weapons employer facilities or 
        Department of Energy facilities that produced and processed 
        radioactive materials, carried out classified research, 
        operated nuclear reactors, and processed high level nuclear 
        waste are located in New York. Fourteen of those facilities are 
        located in the western region of New York.
            (7) Research by the Department of Energy, the National 
        Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Advisory 
        Board on Radiation and Worker Health, and congressional 
        committees indicates that--
                    (A) workers at certain atomic weapons employer 
                facilities and Department of Energy facilities were not 
                adequately monitored for internal or external exposures 
                to ionizing radiation to which the workers were exposed 
                during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; and
                    (B) at other facilities, records were not 
                maintained, or the records from those facilities are 
                not reliable or failed to measure the radioactive 
                isotopes to which workers were exposed.
            (8) No personal radiation dosimetry monitoring records are 
        available from the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New 
        York, which falls within the definition of an atomic weapons 
        employer facility under section 3621 of the Energy Employees 
        Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 
        U.S.C. 7384l).
            (9) Section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupational 
        Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) 
        authorizes the President, upon the recommendation of the 
        Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, to designate 
        additional classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort 
        if it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the 
        radiation dose that the class received and there is a 
        reasonable likelihood that the radiation dose may have 
        endangered the health of members of the class.
            (10) On May 28, 2004, the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services issued a final rule establishing procedures for 
        designating additional classes of employees in the Special 
        Exposure Cohort (69 Fed. Reg. 30,764).
            (11) Legislation is needed to provide additional parameters 
        to the President, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
        and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health for 
        evaluating petitions for inclusion in the Special Exposure 
        Cohort of classes of employees with respect to which there was 
        limited or nonexistent individual radiation exposure monitoring 
        or an absence of records.

SEC. 3. ADDITION OF CLASSES OF FORMER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS 
              TO THE SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEES 
              OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM.

    Section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(A)'' after ``(1)'';
            (2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as subparagraph (B);
            (3) by striking the period at the end and inserting ``; 
        or''; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2)(A) in the case of a class of employees employed at a 
        Department of Energy facility or an atomic weapons employer 
        facility during a period (in the aggregate) of at least 250 
        days (or a shorter duration connected to discrete events, as 
        determined by the President) during which--
                    ``(i) the employees in the class had the potential 
                for exposure to occupational ionizing radiation from 
                production or processing materials related to atomic 
                weapons, or engaged in research, development, testing, 
                assembly, disassembly, decontamination, 
                decommissioning, or waste management, or work related 
                to such activities; and
                    ``(ii)(I) fewer than 50 percent of the employees in 
                the class were individually monitored on a regular 
                basis (using reliable methods and procedures) under a 
                formal health physics program for exposure to internal 
                and external ionizing radiation for the types of 
                radiation and specific radioactive isotopes to which 
                the employees had the potential for exposure during the 
                period when the employees were exposed;
                    ``(II) individual internal and external exposure 
                records for the types of radiation and specific 
                radioactive isotopes to which the employees in the 
                class were potentially exposed at the facility during 
                the period when the employees were exposed are 
                nonexistent or are not available; or
                    ``(III) to the extent that a portion of individual 
                internal or external records are available for the 
                period from the facility, individual radiation doses 
                cannot be reliably determined for more than \2/3\ of 
                the employees in the class using the individual 
                internal and external monitoring records from the 
                facility; and
            ``(B) in the case of a class of employees employed at a 
        facility with respect to which the Director of the National 
        Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has made the 
        determination described in section 3169(b)(4) of the Ronald W. 
        Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 
        (Public Law 108-375; 42 U.S.C. 7384 note) during the residual 
        contamination period described in such section, the employees 
        at the facility met the criteria described in clauses (i) and 
        (ii) of subparagraph (A).''.

SEC. 4. REGULATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
issue regulations for designating additional classes of employees as 
members of the Special Exposure Cohort under section 3626(b)(2) of the 
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, 
as amended by section 3.
    (b) Bethlehem Steel Site.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
shall determine under 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended by section 3, 
whether workers employed at the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New 
York, meet the requirements of such section for membership in the 
Special Exposure Cohort.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to 
Congress a report that identifies each of the following:
            (1) Any Department of Energy facilities or atomic weapons 
        employer facilities (as those terms are defined in section 3621 
        of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
        Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l)) at which classes of 
        employees were employed that meet the requirements for 
        membership in the Special Exposure Cohort under section 
        3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
        Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended by section 3.
            (2) The number of such classes.
            (3) The number of employees in each such class.
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