[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 47 (Thursday, April 13, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE ATOMIC WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 13, 2000

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, today I speak about the issue 
of worker compensation. Today, the administration, Secretary 
Richardson, President Clinton, and Vice President Gore announced a 
worker compensation program for workers at the national laboratories 
all across this country.
  Workers have worked at these nuclear establishments and plants for 
many years, and many of them have been injured as a result. This has 
been a very sad chapter in the history of the United States. The 
Department now acknowledges these occupational exposures and has 
decided to turn over a new leaf. I rise today to introduce legislation 
that deals with this situation. In New Mexico, about 3 weeks ago, I 
attended a hearing in my district where workers came forward; they 
talked about how patriotic they were. They talked about how they were 
serving their country for many, many years, and as a result of their 
work they believed they came down with cancers, with beryllium disease, 
with asbestosis, with a variety of other illnesses. These were very 
heart wrenching stories.
  Among the New Mexicans who shared their testimony is Mr. Jonathan 
Garcia, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over 16 years. 
Mr. Garcia has radiation-induced leukemia. Mr. Garcia has been robbed 
of his health, but not his dignity.
  Gene Westerhold worked for over 44 years cleaning up plutonium and 
hazardous chemicals for Los Alamos National Laboratory. Mr. Westerhold 
was told at one point that he was prohibited from working in certain 
areas due to his high radiation exposures. Yet, when he sought 
information of his exposure history, he was told his records were lost, 
Mr. Westerhold is a survivor.
  Ms. Darleen Ortiz, whose father died of cancer after having spent his 
life cleaning up toxic materials at Los Alamos, is a survivor. Ms. 
Hugette Sirgant, a widow of a Los Alamos National Laboratory employee, 
has bravely taken on the role and responsibility as an advocate for 
both victims and survivors.
  And lastly, Mr. Tomas Archuleta was exposed to beryllium, plutonium, 
asbestos, solvents, toxic metals and hazardous chemicals. Mr. Garcia, 
Mr. Westerhold, Mr. Archuleta, Ms. Oritz, and Ms. Sirgant are 
survivors. These brave people have asked for my help in crafting 
legislation that would help them.
  Today, I introduced a piece of legislation that will be 
comprehensive. It will deal with all of the injuries that occurred and 
that were talked about at the Los Alamos hearing. It is comprehensive 
in the sense that it will cover beryllium; it will cover radiation. It 
will cover asbestos, and it will cover the chemicals that these workers 
were exposed to.
  Under this legislation, the workers will be able to come forward to 
demonstrate their exposure and their illness in a program similar to 
the Workman's Compensation program that is in place for the Federal 
Government.
  My legislation will also provide that during the 120 day period while 
their claim is pending, Los Alamos National Laboratory workers will be 
able to get health care for their ailments related to their workplace 
exposures free of charge at the nearest Veterans Hospital.
  And the burden is on the government, because many of these 
individuals came forward and talked about how they had worked their 
whole life, and they knew they were exposed, but then, when they asked 
for their records, there were no records. Their records were lost. So 
under those circumstances, we clearly have to put the burden on the 
Government.
  Although my bill is specifically directed to New Mexico, I know there 
are many other of my colleagues around the country that have this same 
situation in their districts. They are Democrats and Republicans and 
all areas of the United States are affected. So I think this is a great 
issue for us to join together in a bipartisan way, and I urge my 
colleagues to work together to craft a solution to this problem at the 
national level.
  The reason I think it is so important is that these workers were true 
patriots. They were people that loved their country, cared about their 
country, and worked for their country at a critical time for us. We now 
need to do something for them.

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