[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 101 (Thursday, July 19, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7939-S7940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RADIATION EXPOSURE CLAIMS

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I would like to speak today about a 
group of Americans, some of whom are in my State. Some are in Arizona. 
Some are in Wyoming. Some are in Connecticut. These people have only 
one thing in common: they are the beneficiaries of an American law that 
is called RCRA, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. A number of us 
were part of getting that law passed. It was a recognition that there 
were certain Americans, including uranium miners and some others, who 
very well might have been overexposed to low-level radiation when they 
were mining in uranium mines that weren't aerated--where they did not 
have enough air conditioning and not enough clean air. They may have 
very well during their lives breathed in radiation and contracted 
serious illnesses. Some might have died. Some may today be suffering 
from cancer or other diseases.
  In any event, this law was passed. It was kind of heralded as a very 
good commitment by the Government and very simple. You didn't have to 
get a lawyer for these claims. It was limited to $100,000 in exchange 
for making it simple and setting some standards: You can come in and 
prove your case. You could probably prove your claim in a relatively 
short period of time.
  Lo and behold, if Congress put the money up, you would get your 
check. You could get it as a widow. You could get it as one who was 
sick. You could get it as anyone entitled to it under the statute. It 
worked pretty well for a while.
  Then something very ghastly happened for the beneficiaries. Pretty 
soon, they started going to the Justice Department which has charge of 
these claims and asking them for money.
  The Justice Department told this growing group of Americans: We don't 
have any money.
  They said: What do you mean? Here is the law.
  They said: Well, Congress didn't put up the money. We ran out. So you 
will not be worried, why don't we give you an IOU. Here is your 
assurance that the Government says it owes you $100,000.
  These people started coming to see their Senators--not only me but 
Senator Bingaman and other Senators--saying, time is passing. I am 
getting sicker. I may even die, and I have an IOU from this great big 
American Government. Why can't they pay me?
  Let me say in this Chamber that it is embarrassing to say it even 
here, but it is more embarrassing to say it to the victims. There is a 
big series of discussions going on between committees --even 
appropriations subcommittees--as to which one ought to appropriate the 
money.
  In the meantime, no money is appropriated. People walk around with 
the IOUs filing their claims, and they are working on them day by day. 
And another law passes. It is for a larger group of Americans who come 
in to adjudicate their claims for exposure to low-level radiation. It 
is for radiation where we had uranium in a Richmond,

[[Page S7940]]

VA, mine or perhaps in Paducah, KY, and various places in Ohio. For 
this larger group of people, those claims are still being worked.
  We say: Well, time has passed, and maybe these claims should be a 
little higher. So they are awarded $150,000 if they can prove the claim 
that they are either totally disabled or are an heir.
  Congress in that case--coming out of a different committee--made that 
program an entitlement. Even the occupant of the Chair, who is a new 
Senator, would understand that those claims are paid without anybody 
appropriating it--just like the Social Security check or your veterans 
check.
  Here is one group of Americans filing their claims. Some of them are 
already adjudicated; we stamp out a check, while over here another 
group of Americans carry around IOUs.
  A number of Senators have been working on this issue. A number of 
House Members have been working on it. My friend, Senator Bingaman, has 
been working on it.
  But essentially our last opportunity to cease the embarrassment and 
do something half fair was to put language in the supplemental 
appropriations bill that would see to it that for any claims already 
finished where people are carrying around the IOUs, or any that are 
completed for the rest of this year, there is money for them. We 
provided that in the Senate bill on supplemental appropriations.
  Frankly, we even had to find a way to pay for it because it had to be 
budget neutral. So we found a way to pay for it. I did, out of a 
program I started a few years ago. I said: It is not being used, so 
cancel it so we have room.

  Today, at about 10:30, 11 o'clock this morning, after a number of 
days of conferring, the House-Senate committee on that bill approved 
it. It should come back before us very soon and get approval. It has 
language in it that says whatever amount of money is needed for those 
holding those IOUs and for those finishing up their claims by the end 
of this fiscal year, they will have the money in the Justice Department 
to pay it.
  I say to the Senate, I know it is difficult, unless you have this 
problem, for you to be as concerned as I or those in my particular 
region. But I thought maybe I should tell the whole Senate because it 
is time they know that this is a festering embarrassment.
  Is it solved? No. The appropriations bill that is going to put in 
money for next year only carries a small amount of money because it 
expects, as does the President in his budget, to convert this program 
to an automatic payment program called a mandatory or an entitlement. 
But we have not been able to get that done yet.
  So I have said it for a second reason. I hope the committees that are 
considering it--and I will do my best to go see the committees to make 
myself understood, and take with me whatever evidence I need to 
convince the chairmen and ranking members they ought to make this an 
entitlement. But in the meantime, the people who have claims right up 
until the end of this year will get paid. It will take a couple weeks, 
so they should not be coming into our offices saying thank you yet, nor 
should they come in and ask where is the money. They just have to wait 
a little while. It takes a little bit of time.
  I thought, since we see them and we hear them, that maybe I should 
let the Senate vicariously hear them--you can't see them, but you can 
hear them through me.
  What we have to do is not let another year pass because this is a 
problem, whether or not you come from a State that has ``down-winders'' 
and/or uranium miners; this carries with it some very serious kinds of 
overtones for the U.S. Government. You create a program. You tell 
people: We have been sorry for you up until now, but we will give you a 
little claim here--$100,000--and then, when you prove it up, you will 
take it, and you no longer have any claims, and we have said that we 
have paid you. It is just not right that you do not do it, just not 
right.
  It is growing. The newspeople are starting to carry it. I guess they 
are starting to carry: ``Congress finally puts up the money today.'' 
That is good. But I hope there is a lingering interest in how we fix 
it. It should not be that 6 months into next year somebody exposed to 
low-level radiation at one of America's uranium enrichment plants 
proves their claim and gets an automatic check, but yet you have these 
people who might have worked 35 years ago, for 20 years, in a 
nonaerated uranium mine, where the U.S. Government, even through its 
heralded Atomic Energy Commission, which I know a lot about, made a 
mistake with reference to the quality of air in the mines--where 
acknowledgements were made many years later; and it is hard to get the 
acknowledgement, but we finally got it--yet a mistake was made.
  So I thought it would be good, while we had nothing to do in this 
Senate Chamber, that maybe we could spread this story of what has 
happened and say thank you to the Appropriations Committee for the 
emergency measure today. And we look forward to one of our committees 
passing a bill that will make these few remaining people who are 
entitled to it know they will get their money when their claim is 
adjudicated.

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