[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 11, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A GRAVE INJUSTICE

                                 ______


                           HON. MARTIN FROST

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 11, 1995

  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, today I introduced legislation that will 
attempt to correct a grave injustice that occurred in this country--an 
injustice that involved thousands of people who were the victims of 
secret government-sponsored radiation tests beginning in the 1940s.
  My bill will compensate some of these individuals and follows the 
President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments' 
recommendation in compensating those victims or surviving family 
members of plutonium, zirconium and total-body irradiation experiments 
and would authorize a payment of $50,000. This payment is clearly not 
adequate, but at least it is something.
  One of the people injected with plutonium, Elmer Allen, lived in my 
congressional district in Texas. Believing that he was being treated 
for bone cancer, Mr. Allen received an injection of plutonium in 1947. 
Although doctors did not expect him to live long, Elmer Allen lived 
another 44 years. But those were difficult years for a man troubled by 
numerous illnesses and health problems.
  We can never fully compensate these people for what their government 
has done to them. It's just astonishing that the federal government 
sponsored these experiments. However we can provide some measure of 
relief with this payment and recognition that the United States 
Government was wrong to conduct secret experiments on its citizens.
  Our country sometimes makes mistakes. However the great thing about 
this country is that we come to realize these mistakes and accept 
responsibility. It is time to accept this responsibility and act 
quickly on this legislation to correct this terrible wrong.

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