[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 108 (Thursday, September 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1489-E1490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              BILL TO COMPENSATE POISONED NUCLEAR WORKERS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 14, 2000

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing another 
bill dealing with the pressing matter of providing compensation and 
care for current and former nuclear-weapons workers made sick as a 
result of their on-job exposure to radiation, beryllium, and other 
dangers. Let me explain why I am doing so at this time.
  Earlier this year, I joined in supporting the Whitfield amendment to 
the Defense Authorization bill for fiscal year 2001. That amendment, 
which was adopted by the House, clearly stated that Congress needs to 
act this year to make good on the promise of a fairer deal for these 
people who helped America win the Cold War.
  This is a very important matter for our country. It's particularly 
important for many Coloradans because our state is home to the Rocky 
Flats site, which for decades was a key part of the nuclear weapons 
complex. Now the site's old military mission has ended, and we are 
working hard to have Rocky Flats cleaned up and closed. But while we 
work to take care of the site, we need to work just as hard to take 
care of the people who worked there.
  The people who worked at Rocky Flats and the other nuclear weapons 
sites were part of our country's defense just as much as those who wore 
the uniform of an armed service. They may not have been exposed to 
hostile fire, but they were exposed to radiation and beryllium and 
other very hazardous substances--and because of that some have 
developed serious illnesses while others will develop such illnesses in 
the future. Unfortunately, they haven't been eligible for veterans' 
benefits and have been excluded from other federal programs because 
they technically worked for DOE's contractors--and for far too long the 
government was not on their side. That has changed, I'm glad to say--
the Department of Energy has reversed its decades-old policy of 
opposing workers claims.
  I strongly supported that amendment because, as Len Ackland, writing 
in the Denver Post, has correctly said, ``The shape of such legislation 
will determine whether or not this nation, through its political 
leadership, will finally accept responsibility for the physical harm to 
thousands of the 600,000 workers recruited to fight the cold war by 
producing nuclear weapons.''
  So I was encouraged when the House adopted that amendment and went on 
record as saying that now is the time for the Congress to accept that 
responsibility. Adoption of the amendment signaled that the House 
recognized this to be a matter of high priority and that it was 
important for Congress to pass legislation this year to create an 
efficient, uniform, and adequate system of compensation for these 
civilian veterans of the cold war.
  But that amendment was only a very modest first step. Since its 
adoption, both the House and Senate have completed initial action on 
the defense authorization bill--and the bill as passed by the Senate 
includes a separate title, Title 35, that would set up a compensation 
system for these workers who played such a vital role in winning the 
Cold War. That title, and the other differences between the House and 
Senate versions of the defense authorization bill, are now being 
considered by a conference committee.
  I am sure that this Senate-passed legislation could be further 
refined. But we are rapidly nearing the end of this Congress, and time 
is of the essence. That is why, along with more than 100 of our 
colleagues, I have strongly urged the House's conferees to agree to 
this part of the Senate bill. I remain convinced that having the 
Senate-passed legislation included in the conference report on the 
defense authorization bill would be the very best way to take the 
essential first step toward the vital goal of doing justice to these 
workers.
  However, some questions have been raised about the details of that 
Senate-passed legislation--and, next week, there will be a Subcommittee 
hearing in the Judiciary Committee

[[Page E1490]]

to examine the pending House legislation dealing with this subject. 
There already are a number of pending House bills. Most notably, there 
is H.R. 4398, introduced by our colleague from Kentucky, Mr. Whitfield. 
I am a cosponsor of that bill and I think it would be highly desirable 
for that bill to be signed into law.
  However, until now the Senate-passed legislation technically has not 
been pending before the Judiciary Committee because it was passed as an 
amendment to the defense authorization bill rather than as a free-
standing measure.
  So, along with a number of other Members who are joining as 
cosponsors, I today am introducing a bill that combines elements of the 
Whitfield amendment to the defense authorization bill--namely, the 
findings spelling out the background and the need for legislation--and 
the substantive provisions of Title 35 of the Senate amendment to that 
same defense authorization bill.
  I am doing this so that the Judiciary Committee will have the fullest 
possible opportunity to consider these provisions at next week's 
hearing. My hope is that as a result the Judiciary Committee members 
who are also conferees on the defense authorization bill will join the 
other House conferees in agreeing to inclusion of these provisions in 
the conference report. I think that will provide the best opportunity 
to achieve enactment this year of an essential first step toward 
providing a long-overdue measure of justice. I know that more will 
remain to be done, but it will lay a good foundation on which to build 
in the near future--something that I hope to be able to do beginning 
next year.

                      Digest of Provisions of Bill

       Title: Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
     Act of 2000 (based on Title 35, Senate Defense Authorization 
     Act, FY 2001).
       Background: After decades of denials, the Administration 
     has conceded that workers who helped make nuclear weapons 
     were exposed to radiation and chemicals that caused cancer 
     and early death. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson is 
     leading the Administration's efforts to pass as comprehensive 
     a bill as possible in this Congress. The Administration 
     offered a preliminary bill in November 1999 (HR 3418) through 
     Representative Paul Kanjorski. After releasing a National 
     Economic Council Report in April 2000 which outlined the 
     science and policy reasons for implementing a federal workers 
     comp system for nuclear weapons workers, Representative 
     Whitfield, and many cosponsors, introduced HR 4398, a 
     comprehensive bill which covers radiation, beryllium silica, 
     hazardous chemicals and heavy metals.
       New Bill/Senate Amendment: The Udall of Colorado bill 
     incorporates the provisions of the Energy Employees 
     Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000, which was 
     adopted on the Senate floor as an amendment to the Defense 
     Authorization Act for fiscal year 2001. It provides for 
     payment by the Federal government of lost wages and/or 
     medical costs for employees who died or whose health was 
     damaged by exposure to beryllium, radiation or silica while 
     working for the defense of the United States through defense 
     nuclear programs of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its 
     predecessor agencies. These health hazards were special to 
     DOE and to nuclear weapons, which require both beryllium-
     containing components and radioactive materials and drilling 
     of tunnels under the Nevada Test Site.
       The compensation in this bill is modeled on the coverage 
     federal employees can receive in the Federal Employees 
     Compensation Act. Compensation decisions are to be based on 
     science and expert judgment, and dose information is to be 
     used where it is known or can be estimated. As with FECA, 
     compensation under this bill would be mandatory spending and 
     benefits are tax exempt. CBO has scored Title 35 of the 
     Senate's Defense Authorization bill at $2.3 billion over 5 
     years and $3.7 billion over 10 years.
       Three federal agencies would be involved in the program. 
     The Department of Labor, which already administers FECA, 
     would handle the administrative processing of claims, 
     appeals, and payments. The Department of Health and Human 
     Services (HHS), which currently oversees radiation and 
     beryllium health effects research at DOE sites, would oversee 
     the scientific decisions that must be made. The DOE, which 
     has the detailed information on and access to workers, is to 
     play an advocacy role in informing workers of the programs 
     and facilitating information flow to the Department of Labor.
       Hazards and Coverage: Beryllium: Beryllium is a non-
     radioactive metal that can cause an allergic reaction that 
     ,severely scars the lungs. Beryllium lung damage has unique 
     characteristics and can be traced specifically to beryllium 
     exposure. The first sign of the allergic reaction is 
     beryllium sensitivity, which sometimes progresses to chronic 
     beryllium disease. Beryllium sensitivity must be medically 
     monitored, but is not disabling. Chronic beryllium disease 
     can disable or kill. Under Title 35 and this bill:
       Workers who can show beryllium sensitivity (or who have 
     chronic beryllium disease but are not disabled) would be 
     eligible to have the medical costs of monitoring their 
     condition paid by the Federal government.
       Workers who contract chronic beryllium disease and who die 
     or are disabled could also receive lost wage benefits, in 
     addition to medical costs.
       Radiation: Radiation in high doses has been linked to 
     elevated rates of some types of cancer. Unlike beryllium 
     illness, it is not possible to look at a tumor and know for 
     sure that radiation in the workplace caused it. Scientists 
     have determined the doses at which certain cancers in workers 
     in certain age groups can be confidently be said to be 
     radiation caused. These data on radiation dose and cancer 
     form the basis in the bill for compensating workers who have 
     adequate dose records, as follows.
       Workers who have a specified radiogenic cancer that is 
     determined to be work-related under HHS guidelines, but who 
     are not disabled, could have their medical costs of their 
     cancer treatment paid by the Federal government.
       Workers who have a work related cancer, as established 
     under the HHS guidelines, and who are disabled or dead, could 
     also receive lost wage benefits, in addition to medical 
     costs.
       Silicosis: Miners at the Nevada Test site drilled 
     underground tunnels through hard rock for the placement of 
     nuclear weapons devices that were subsequently tested. DOE 
     failed to adequately control exposure to silica dust and 20 
     percent of the workers screened by a DOE medical screening 
     program at the Nevada Test Site have found silicosis, a 
     disease that causes irreparable scarring of the lungs.
       Workers with Non-Existent Radiation Records. Many worker 
     dose records in DOE are flawed, but this amendment requires 
     HHS to estimate dose, where records exist and it is feasible 
     to do so. In some cases, though, it is not feasible to 
     reconstruct what radiation dose a group of workers received, 
     even though it is clear from their job types that their 
     health may have been endangered by radiation. For these 
     special exposure situations, the bill provides that workers 
     can be placed by the HHS into a ``special exposure cohort'' 
     that can be compensated for certain types of cancer 
     enumerated in the amendment. Members of the ``special 
     exposure cohort'' are eligible for the same compensation as 
     workers in the previous section. Because of the unmeasured, 
     probably large, internal radiation doses which they received, 
     and the lack of monitoring, protection, or even warning given 
     by DOE to them, certain employees at the DOE gaseous 
     diffusion plants are placed in the ``special exposure 
     cohort'' by law under the bill. It was the public outcry over 
     the deliberate deception of these employees by the DOE and 
     its contractors concerning workplace radiation risks that led 
     the Administration to propose the bill on which Title 35 and 
     this bill are patterned.
       Lump Sum Payment Option. All of the above classes of 
     workers, if they are disabled, and their survivors, if the 
     workers die before being compensated, would be able to choose 
     a one-time $200,000 lump plus medical benefits in lieu of 
     lost wages and ongoing medical benefits described above. This 
     option is intended mostly for elderly, retired workers, or 
     for survivors of deceased workers.
       Administrative Provisions. There are provisions in the bill 
     against receiving lost wages or lump sum payments for more 
     than one disability or cause of death. Benefits under other 
     Federal or state worker compensation statutes for the same 
     disability or death would be deducted from any benefits under 
     the bill. Title 35 and the bill also contain language making 
     payment under the amendment the exclusive remedy for all 
     liability by DOE and its contractors. For vendors, acceptance 
     of payment under this program would waive the right to sue, 
     but employees who seek court relief would have to file within 
     180 days of the onset of a beryllium or radiation related 
     disease.
       Other Toxic Substances: The bill does not provide federal 
     compensation for health effects from exposure to other toxic 
     substances in the DOE workplace, but does authorize DOE to 
     work with States to get workers with these health effects 
     into State worker compensation programs. DOE will maintain an 
     office to review claims and advise contractors not challenge 
     claims deemed meritorious by DOE.

     

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