[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 46 (Thursday, April 17, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E708-E709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              DEFENSE WORKERS HEALTH BENEFITS LEGISLATION

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                          HON. DAVID E. SKAGGS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 17, 1997

  Mr. SKAGGS. Mr. Speaker, I am today again 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 1997, 
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 front 
lines in the cold war. They helped our national defense mission, 
working with dangerous materials often

[[Page E709]]

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 insurance coverage for work-related illnesses.
  This is the right thing to do. 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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