[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3144-S3146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to imagine the 
following nightmare:

[[Page S3145]]

  You have spent years in the uranium mines helping to build America's 
nuclear programs. As a result, you have contracted a debilitating and 
too often deadly radiation-related disease that has caused severe 
emotional and physical suffering. Most of life's joys have long since 
ended.
  Your only solace is that the government is going to pay you for this 
suffering. Certainly, the money will never be enough to compensate you 
for what you've lost, but at least your medical bills will be paid. At 
least, if you lose this fight your family will be left with money.
  However, when you open the Justice Department letter that you have 
long awaited, it reads:

       I am pleased to inform you that your claim for compensation 
     under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has been 
     approved. Regretfully, because the money available to pay 
     claims has been exhausted, we are unable to send a 
     compensation payment to you at this time. When Congress 
     provides additional funds, we will contact you to commence 
     the payment process. Thank you for your understanding.

  Unfortunately, my fellow Senators, this is not a bad dream, but 
rather the terrible reality for hundreds of uranium miners, federal 
workers, and downwinders who have contracted these deadly radiation-
related diseases. One such individual is Bob Key.
  Bob Key helped build our nation's nuclear arsenal and end the Cold 
War through his difficult work as a uranium miner. Little did he know 
at the time that the uranium was slowly ravaging his body. As a result, 
Mr. Key has spent many years enduring the grueling pain associated with 
pulmonary fibrosis, which requires him to be hooked to an oxygen tank 
for hours on end. Recently, Mr. Key, 61, needed a tracheotomy simply to 
help him breathe.
  Yet, despite his enormous suffering, Mr. Key has not received the 
$100,000 compensation from the government for which he is entitled 
under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990. Instead, he 
received a five-line IOU from the Justice Department stating that there 
was not enough money to indemnify him for his suffering. This is a 
disgrace.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Key's horror story is a familiar one for many 
uranium miners, federal workers, and downwinders from New Mexico, 
Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. In some cases,the miners have died and 
their loved ones are left holding nothing but a Justice Department IOU. 
In 1990, when we passed the Domenici-authored Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act, we never envisioned that these miners would receive 
IOUs. However, the fund is now bankrupt because of expansions in the 
program and Congress' failure to appropriate enough money.
  This injustice must be rectified. I rise today to urge my colleagues 
to remedy this lack of funding. Those who gave so much for our nation's 
security through their work on our nuclear programs must be compensated 
for the enormous price they paid. Anything less is unacceptable.
  Senator Hatch and I have introduced two bills that will provide full 
funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund. We proposed 
legislation seeking $84 million in emergency supplemental 
appropriations to pay those claims that have already been approved as 
well as the projected number of approved claims for fiscal year 2001. 
This legislation would also make all future payments for approved 
claims mandatory.
  With this legislation, we will ensure that those who gave so much for 
our nation will at least receive their deserved benefits. We must never 
again let their sacrifice go unanswered. I again ask my Senate 
colleagues to help us right this wrong and give these victims their 
just compensation. I ask unanimous consent that the March 27 New York 
Times article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the New York Times, March 27, 2001]

     Ill Uranium Miners Left Waiting As Payments for Exposure Lapse

                         (By Michael Janofsky)

       Grand Junction, Colo., March 20.--For all the reminders of 
     Bob Key's cold war effort, mining uranium for American 
     nuclear weapons programs, none stands out more than the tank 
     of oxygen tethered to his throat. Mr. Key, 61, has pulmonary 
     fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that is often fatal. A 
     recent tracheotomy helps air flow to his lungs through a tube 
     connected to the tank.
       A decade ago, Congress recognized the contributions of Mr. 
     Key and other uranium miners and passed the Radiation 
     Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990. Signed by President 
     George Bush, the law established one-time payments of up to 
     $100,000 to miners or their families and to people who lived 
     downwind from the nuclear test sites in Nevada. Last year, 
     Congress increased the payout to $150,000, added new medical 
     benefits and expanded the number of workers eligible.
       But after years of smooth operations, the program is broke. 
     Scrambling last year to pass President Bill Clinton's final 
     budget, lawmakers never debated the Justice Department's 
     request for additional money to cover the expanded program 
     even as new applications were pouring in, and by May, nothing 
     was left. And Congress has been reluctant to act until it 
     decides how to apportion the federal surplus and how much to 
     cut taxes.
       As a result, for the first time, claims from hundreds of 
     eligible applicants like Mr. Key have been held up, with many 
     of the applicants receiving i.o.u. letters from the Justice 
     Department, which administers the program, saying their 
     requests will be processed only after Congress appropriates 
     more money.
       And the demand is only increasing. Claims from another 
     1,600 applicants under the original law are pending, and the 
     department estimates that as many as 1,050 new applicants are 
     expected to file for benefits this year, a number that would 
     raise the cost of the program to more than $80 million.
       ``It's been a bureaucratic travesty,'' said Representative 
     Scott McInnis, a republican from Grand Junction, a city in 
     western Colorado, who introduced legislation this year 
     seeking $84 million to restore the program. ``These people 
     are due their compensation. There is nothing to be 
     adjudicated. The money is owed. The debt is due.''
       For now, Congress has not decided how or when to continue 
     the program. Lawmakers are discussing the possibility of 
     legislation as part of the current year's budget to provide 
     money right away.
       Meanwhile, almost 200 people who have been approved for the 
     money are still holding the i.o.u.'s,  including relatives of 
     some miners who have died of their illnesses while 
     waiting.
       ``Just since January, we've lost five clients, and I'm sure 
     there are more we're not aware of,'' said Keith Killian, a 
     lawyer here who represents former uranium miners and their 
     families. Rebecca Rockwell, a private investigator in 
     Durango, Colo., said she represented the families of at least 
     10 clients with i.o.u. letters who have died.
       Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Senator Orrin G. 
     Hatch of Utah, both Republicans, have introduced legislation 
     similar to Mr. McInnis's, asking for enough money to pay all 
     claims through this year and to make the program a permanent 
     entitlement so Congress does not have to authorize spending 
     each year. They have urged President Bush to include money 
     for the program in a supplemental budget proposal for the 
     current fiscal year.
       But miners and their families have been told that no new 
     spending is likely until Congress resolves its fiscal issues, 
     a process that could delay disbursement of the miners' money 
     for months, even a year.
       ``I'm bitter about it,'' said Mr. Key, who worked in the 
     mines from 1959 through 1963 and, like other mine workers, 
     said he was never warned of the health consequences of 
     exposure to uranium.
       ``I wonder how well those guys in Washington would do, see 
     how they would like it, tied to a chain like I am 24 hours a 
     day,'' Mr. Key said. ``I know I owe taxes this year. I'm just 
     going to tell them to take it out of my i.o.u.''
       Worried that he will not live long enough to receive a 
     check because of his lung disease, Jack Beeson, 67, a former 
     miner from Moab, Utah, said: ``We worked in those mines, 
     waiting for our golden years. Well, now it's our golden 
     years, and it's done nothing but cost us gold. This is no way 
     to live. I felt I was doing the government a service. Now, I 
     feel they're doing me a disservice.''
       To many of the former miners who extracted uranium from 
     hundreds of mines in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, 
     the i.o.u.'s are insulting. From the 1940's through 1971, 
     when mining for the nuclear weapons program ended, they 
     regarded themselves as patriots, equal to servicemen. The 
     relatively high wages paid by the mines were a lure, but so 
     was the idea that uranium mining was crucial to national 
     security.
       Lorna Harvey's father, Loren Wilcox, was a cattle rancher. 
     But he disliked Russia so much, Ms. Harvey said, that he took 
     a mining job in 1954 and worked it for two and a half years. 
     ``He felt we needed to protect ourselves,'' she said. Mr. 
     Wilcox died of lung cancer in 1969 at 62.
       Most workers had no idea that the yellow ore they were 
     mining could destroy their health. Wayne Hill, 69, who has 
     lung cancer, said a tin cup hung at the entrance to one mine 
     for miners and drivers to drink water dripping out of the 
     rocks. ``It was cool, clear water,'' he said. ``I didn't know 
     it was going to make me light up.''
       So little was known or revealed about the health 
     consequences of uranium exposure that workers used uranium 
     dust for fertilizer and uranium rocks for doorstops. ``My 
     mother made earrings out of it,'' Ms. Harvey said.
       With deaths and illnesses mounting and ample scientific 
     evidence to show that uranium exposure was a cause, Congress 
     passed

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     legislation to compensate the miners in 1990. And for nearly 
     10 years, the Justice Department's annual requests for 
     financing the program were met. To date, $268.7 million has 
     been paid to 3,595 people. About the same number were denied 
     because they lacked proper medical records or copies of 
     company logs that showed how long they had worked in the 
     mines.
       The financial crunch arose when Mr. Clinton expanded the 
     program at a time Congress appropriated only $10.8 million to 
     cover existing claims, an amount that was exhausted quickly. 
     Efforts by Mr. Domenici and others to cover the shortfall, as 
     well as the new applicants, failed.
       Some of the i.o.u. holders have lost hope of seeing the 
     money. Darlene Pagel's husband, Duane, died of pulmonary 
     fibrosis in 1986 at 55. Since then, Ms. Pagel said, she has 
     worked two jobs to pay off his medical bills, which still 
     amount to $26,922.
       ``He didn't know uranium could kill him,'' she said. ``If 
     he'd have known he would have been dead at 55, he never would 
     have taken the job.''

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