[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              DEFENSE WORKERS HEALTH BENEFITS LEGISLATION

                                 ______


                          HON. DAVID E. SKAGGS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 20, 1995
  Mr. SKAGGS. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to 
provide health insurance benefits to former employees at defense 
nuclear facilities such as the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
  This bill, the Defense Nuclear Workers' Health Insurance Act of 1995, 
is essentially identical to a bill I introduced in the last Congress, 
and is based on provisions of a defense nuclear workers' bill of rights 
that I introduced in 1991. Other provisions of that larger bill were 
enacted as part of the 1993 defense authorization bill.
  The bill I am introducing today would establish a health insurance 
program to help with the costs of serious illnesses resulting from 
workplace exposure to radiation or toxic materials. This would be 
funded through the Department of Energy and would cover treatment costs 
exceeding $25,000 for the covered illnesses or injuries.
  Mr. Speaker, nuclear weapons plant workers were on America's 
frontlines in the cold war. They helped our national defense mission, 
working with dangerous materials often under conditions that would not 
be acceptable by today's standards. Now, as the work force at these 
sites is reduced, we need to act to assure prospective future employers 
that company health insurance rates will not be adversely affected if 
they hire these former defense workers. We also need to act to give 
these workers assurance that they'll have health insurance coverage for 
work-related illnesses.
  This is the right thing to do, Mr. Speaker. America has already 
rightly recognized a special obligation to veterans and to those 
exposed to dangerous levels of radiation during the cold war--uranium 
miners, people who were downwind from nuclear tests, and atomic 
veterans. Nuclear weapons workers deserve similar consideration, and 
this bill would provide that.


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