[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 160 (Wednesday, December 14, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13573-S13574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself, Mr. Akaka, and Mr. Bingaman):
  S. 2098. A bill to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 to clarify the eligibility of certain 
employees of the Department of Energy under that Act; to the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I send to the desk for appropriate 
reference legislation that will clarify that citizens of the former 
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands are eligible for coverage and 
potential compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act, EEOICPA, for workers who developed radiogenic 
cancers and other ailments after working at the Pacific Test Site in 
the Marshall Islands.
  An estimated up to 500 Republic of Marshall Islanders and other 
Micronesian workers may have been employed by the Department of Energy, 
or its predecessor agency, or Department subcontractors prior to 1986 
when the Trusteeship was terminated for all areas except Palau. Both 
Bikini and Enewetak Atolls were the sites for numerous nuclear and 
thermonuclear tests. Other atolls, such as Rongelap and Utrik, were 
affected by fallout from the Bravo hydrogen bomb test in March 1954.
  Congress, in 2000, approved a compensation program to provide aid and 
pay medical bills for those who suffered radiation-caused illnesses 
because of working on the nuclear weapons program. Congress 
specifically set up a ``Special Exposure Cohort'' to provide 
compensation to certain workers with radiogenic cancer and other 
illnesses because it was presumed that their illnesses resulted from 
workplace exposure to radiation caused by their Government work. 
Congress, in 2004, amended the act, first approved in the 2001 Military 
Construction Authorization Act, to speed payments of compensation, 
including funds for lost wages to workers or their heirs, to those who 
worked for the Department of Energy and its predecessor agency on 
nuclear weapons programs.
  Earlier this year the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held 
an oversight hearing to review a number of issues raised by the 
government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands related to the 
effects of the nuclear testing program. One of the issues was coverage 
for residents of the then-trust territory who were employed during the 
testing and subsequent cleanup. During that period, the United States 
was the administering authority over the area under a United Nations 
Trusteeship Agreement and exercised all the powers of a sovereign. It 
seems somewhat incongruous for the Congress to have established a 
program that applied to U.S. citizens but not to those who lived and 
worked under U.S. administration.
  That also seems reasonable, since there is little other reason for 
the specific inclusion of the Pacific Test Site if the workers were not 
to be covered. During Senate debate, Senator Bingaman, a conferee on 
the amendment, submitted a list of DOE facilities intended to be 
covered by the act--a list which included the Marshall Islands, 146 
Cong. Rec. S. 4754-7.
  While most of the issues raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
for the Marshall Islands during our oversight hearing are now being 
discussed with various Federal agencies under the auspices of Secretary 
of the Interior Norton, this is an issue that will require 
congressional action, given the interpretations from Federal agencies 
that questioned whether Congress intended the Act to apply 
extraterritorially. The act, of course, applies to individuals not 
jurisdictions and the specific mention of the Pacific Test Site and 
Enewetak would seem to indicate that Congress intended to include 
workers at the site.
  Subsequent to the hearing, I had the privilege to meet privately with 
the President of the Marshall Islands when he visited Washington in 
early September. We had a good meeting and at the time I offered my 
assistance in ensuring that the proper agencies or groups would review 
the issues they had raised. As I indicated, most of these issues are 
properly now being discussed with representatives of the Marshalls 
through a multi-agency dialogue headed by Secretary Norton. This issue, 
however, may be one that is best handled directly through the 
congressional process. Therefore, when I was asked by the Marshall's 
Embassy here in Washington if I would introduce a bill to clarify 
worker eligibility so that the proper congressional committees could 
review it, I agreed.
  Given the paperwork, record and radiation dosage requirements for 
receipt of compensation, it is far from clear how many Marshallese and 
Micronesian workers will actually qualify for the up to $150,000 in 
compensation, plus medical benefits and lost wage compensation for 
ailments caused by radiation stemming from the weapons tests. That is 
an issue that I hope the congressional committees will consider 
sympathetically. But it is only just that the program be opened equally 
to all Department of Energy workers or subcontract workers who labored 
to produce nuclear weapons to help this Nation's national defense at a 
critical period of the Cold War. As an Alaskan from a State whose 
workers have been compensated for injuries they gained resulting from 
underground weapons testing at Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Chain 
almost immediately after the ending of weapons testing in the 
atmosphere over the Marshall Islands, it is impossible not to support 
aid for the Marshallese.
  While Congress and the administration continue to weigh additional 
aid to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, passage of this measure 
would be a sign of this Nation's continued commitment to aid the 
islanders who in February 1946 followed the advice of Bikinian leader, 
King Juda, and agreed to leave the Bikini Atoll so America could use

[[Page S13574]]

it for weapons testing saying, ``We will go believing that everything 
is in the hands of God.''
  I appreciate the understanding and the patience shown by the 
Marshall's Government and their citizens as we proceed to review the 
issues raised concerning the effects of the nuclear testing program, 
and I hope the introduction of this legislation will be seen as an 
example of our commitment to see that those issues receive a full and 
fair review and discussion.
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