[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E292-E293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF ROCKY FLATS SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 7, 2007

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam Speaker, I am today again introducing a 
bill to make it more likely that red tape and missing documents will 
not frustrate Congress's attempt to provide compensation and care for 
some nuclear-weapons workers made sick by on-the-job exposure to 
radiation.
  The bill is cosponsored by my colleague from Colorado, Mr. 
Perlmutter. I appreciate his support and that of Senator Ken Salazar, 
who is introducing a similar bill in the Senate.
  The bill would revise the part of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Injury Compensation Act (``the Act'') that specifies which covered 
workers are part of what the law designates as the ``Special Exposure 
Cohort.''
  The revision would extend this ``special exposure cohort'' status to 
Department of Energy employees, Department of Energy contractor 
employees, or atomic weapons employees--all terms defined by the 
current law--who worked at the Rocky Flats site, in Colorado, for at 
least 250 days prior to January 1, 2006.
  The result would be to help provide the Act's benefits to any of 
those workers who contracted a radiation-linked cancer specified in the 
Act after beginning employment at Rocky Flats.
  As the law now stands, before a Rocky Flats worker suffering from a 
covered cancer can receive benefits, it must be established that the 
cancer is as likely as not to have resulted from on-the-job exposure to 
radiation.
  That sounds like a reasonable requirement--and it would be 
appropriate for Rocky Flats if we had adequate documentation of 
radiation exposures for the years when it was producing nuclear-weapons 
components as well as for the more recent time when DOE and its 
contractors have been working to clean it up and prepare it for 
closure.
  However, in fact there were serious shortcomings in the monitoring of 
Rocky Flats workers' radiation exposures and in the necessary 
recordkeeping--to say nothing of the slowness of the current 
administrative process for making the required determinations 
concerning links between exposure and employment.
  So there is a risk that a significant number of Rocky Flats workers 
who should be able to benefit from the Act will not obtain its benefits 
in a timely manner or will be denied them entirely.
  The bill would prevent this miscarriage of justice, by recognizing 
that Rocky Flats workers have been plagued by the same kinds of 
administrative problems that entangled workers at some other 
locations--administrative problems that were addressed through 
inclusion in the Act of the provisions related to the ``Special 
Exposure Cohort.''
  My understating of the need for this bill came from meeting with 
Rocky Flats workers and their representatives and by consulting 
experts. I have particularly benefited from the great experience and 
expertise of Dr. Robert Bistline. Dr. Bistline has served as Program 
Manager of the Energy Department's Oversight of Radiation Protection 
Program at the Rocky Flats field office and has few if any peers in 
terms of his understanding of the problems addressed by the bill.
  In particular, the bill reflects these aspects of Rocky Flats 
history--
  Many worker exposures were unmonitored over the plant's history. For 
some, estimated doses were assigned, and radiation exposures for many 
others are missing. As a result, there are at best incomplete records 
and many inaccuracies in the exposure records that do exist.
  No lung counter for detecting and measuring plutonium and americium 
in the lungs existed at Rocky Flats until the late 1960s. Without this 
equipment the very insoluble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be 
detected and a large number of workers had inhalation exposures that 
went undetected and unmeasured.
  Exposure to neutron radiation was not monitored until the late 1950s 
and most of those measurements through 1970 have been found to be in 
error. In some areas of the plant the neutron doses were as much as 2 
to 10 times as great as the gamma doses received by workers but only 
gamma doses were recorded.
  As a result of these and other shortcomings, some Rocky Flats workers 
have been denied compensation under the Act despite having worked with 
tons of plutonium and having known exposures leading to serious health 
effects.
  Since early in my tenure in Congress I have worked to make good on 
promises of a fairer deal for the nuclear-weapons workers who helped 
America win the Cold War. That was why enactment and improvement of the 
compensation Act has been one of my top priorities. I saw this as a 
very important matter for our country--and especially 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 military mission has ended and the last of the Rocky 
Flats workers have completed the job of cleaning it up for closure. And 
just as they worked to take care of the site, we in Congress need to 
take care of them and the others who worked there in the past.
  That was the purpose of the compensation act. I am very proud that I 
was able to help achieve its enactment, but I am also aware that it is 
not perfect. The bill being introduced today will not remedy all the 
shortcomings of the current law, but it will make it better.
  For the benefit of our colleague, I am attaching an outline of the 
bill's provisions.

               Outline of Rocky Flats Special Cohort Bill

     Section 1: Short Title, Findings, and Purpose
       Subsection (a) provides a short title, ``Rocky Flats 
     Special Cohort Act.''
       Subsection (b) sets forth several findings regarding the 
     need for the legislation.
  Subsection (c) states the bill's purpose: ``to revise the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000 to include 
certain past Rocky Flats workers as members of the special exposure 
cohort.''
     Section 2: Definition of Member of Special Exposure Cohort
       Subsection (a) amends section 3621(14) of the Energy 
     Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Act (EEOICPA). The 
     effect of the amendment is to provide that a person

[[Page E293]]

     employed by the Department of Energy or any of its 
     contractors for an aggregate of at least 250 work days at 
     Rocky Flats before January 1, 2006 would be a ``member of the 
     Special Exposure Cohort.'' Under EEOICPA, a member of the 
     special exposure cohort suffering from one of the cancers 
     specified in the Act is covered by the Act if the cancer was 
     contracted after the person began employment at a covered 
     facility.
       Subsection (b) provides that someone employed by the Energy 
     Department or any of its contractors for an aggregate of at 
     least 250 work days at Rocky Flats before January 1, 2006 may 
     apply for compensation or benefits under EEOICPA even if the 
     person had previously been denied compensation or benefits 
     under the Act. This is to make clear that the subsection 
     (a)'s change in the law will apply to people who had applied 
     previously.

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