[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2099-S2100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID:
  S. 650. A bill to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 to provide for certain nuclear weapons 
program workers to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the 
compensation program established by that Act; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the 
bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 650

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Nevada Test Site Veterans' 
     Compensation Act of 2007''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The contribution of the State of Nevada to the security 
     of the United States throughout the Cold War and since has 
     been unparalleled.
       (2) In 1950, President Harry S Truman designated what would 
     later be called the Nevada Test Site as the country's nuclear 
     proving grounds and, a month later, the first atmospheric 
     test at the Nevada Test Site was detonated.
       (3) The United States conducted 100 above-ground and 828 
     underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 
     to 1992.
       (4) Out of the 1,054 nuclear tests conducted in the United 
     States, 928, or 88 percent, were conducted at the Nevada Test 
     Site.
       (5) The Nevada Test Site has served, and continues to 
     serve, as the premier research, testing, and development site 
     for the nuclear defense capabilities of the United States.
       (6) The Nevada Test Site and its workers are an essential 
     and irreplaceable part of the Nation's defense capabilities.
       (7) Individuals working on Cold War-era nuclear weapons 
     programs were employed in facilities owned by the Federal 
     Government and the private sector producing and testing 
     nuclear weapons and engaging in related atomic energy defense 
     activities for the national defense beginning in the 1940s.
       (8) These Cold War atomic energy veterans helped to build 
     and test the nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent 
     during the Cold War, sacrificing their personal health and 
     well-being in service to the United States.
       (9) During the Cold War, many of these workers were exposed 
     to radiation, beryllium, and silica, and were placed in 
     harm's way by the Department of Energy and contractors, 
     subcontractors, and vendors of the Department without the 
     workers' knowledge or consent, without adequate radiation 
     monitoring, and without necessary protections from internal 
     or external occupational radiation exposure.
       (10) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
     Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.) (in this section 
     referred to as ``EEOICPA'') was enacted to ensure fairness 
     and equity for the men and women who, during the past 60 
     years, performed duties uniquely related to the nuclear 
     weapons

[[Page S2100]]

     production and testing programs of the Department of Energy, 
     its predecessor agencies, and its contractors by establishing 
     a program that would provide timely, uniform, and adequate 
     compensation for beryllium- and radiation-related health 
     conditions.
       (11) Research by the Department of Energy, the National 
     Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), NIOSH 
     contractors, the President's Advisory Board on Radiation and 
     Worker Health, and congressional committees indicates that at 
     certain nuclear weapons facilities--
       (A) workers were not adequately monitored for internal or 
     external exposure to ionizing radiation; and
       (B) records were not maintained, are not reliable, are 
     incomplete, or fail to indicate the radioactive isotopes to 
     which workers were exposed.
       (12) Due to the inequities posed by the factors described 
     above and the resulting harm to the workers, Congress 
     designated classes of atomic weapons employees at the 
     Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K-25, 
     Tennessee, and the Amchitka Island, Alaska, sites as members 
     of the Special Exposure Cohort under EEOICPA.
       (13) It has become evident that it is not feasible to 
     estimate with sufficient accuracy in a timely manner the 
     radiation dose received by employees at the Department of 
     Energy facility at the Nevada Test Site for many reasons, 
     including the following:
       (A) The NIOSH Technical Basis Document, the threshold 
     document for radiation dose reconstruction under EEOICPA, has 
     incomplete radionuclide lists.
       (B) NIOSH has not demonstrated that it can estimate dose 
     from exposure to large, nonrespirable hot particles.
       (C) There are significant gaps in environmental measurement 
     and exposure data.
       (D) Resuspension doses have been seriously underestimated.
       (E) NIOSH has not been able to estimate accurately 
     exposures to bomb assembly workers and radon levels.
       (F) NIOSH has not demonstrated that it can accurately 
     sample tritiated water vapor.
       (G) External dose records lack integrity.
       (H) There are no beta dose data from before 1966.
       (I) There are no neutron dose data from before 1966 and 
     only partial data after such date.
       (J) There are no internal dose data from before late 1955 
     or 1956, and limited data until well into the 1960s.
       (K) NIOSH has ignored exposure from more than a dozen 
     underground tests that vented, including Blanca, Des Moines, 
     Baneberry, Camphor, Diagonal Line, Riola, Agrini, Midas Myth, 
     Misty Rain, and Mighty Oak.
       (L) Instead of monitoring individuals, groups were 
     monitored, resulting in unreliable personnel monitoring.
       (14) Some Nevada Test Site workers, despite having worked 
     with significant amounts of radioactive materials and having 
     known exposures leading to serious health effects, have been 
     denied compensation under EEOICPA as a result of flawed 
     calculations based on records that are incomplete or in 
     error, or based on faulty assumptions and incorrect models.
       (15) Although basal cell carcinoma and chronic lymphocytic 
     leukemia are both radiogenic cancers that employees at the 
     Nevada Test Site may have contracted in the scope of their 
     work, EEOICPA currently will not include individuals with 
     basal cell carcinoma as members of the Special Exposure 
     Cohort, nor does it provide for compensation for employees 
     with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

     SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF CERTAIN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS 
                   IN SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER ENERGY 
                   EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION 
                   PROGRAM.

       (a) In General.--Section 3621 of the Energy Employees 
     Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 
     U.S.C. 7384l) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (9), by adding at the end the following 
     new subparagraph:
       ``(C) An individual described in paragraph (14)(D).''; and
       (2) in paragraph (14), by adding at the end the following 
     new subparagraph:
       ``(D) The employee was so employed at the Nevada Test Site 
     or other similar sites located in Nevada during the period 
     beginning on January 1, 1950, and ending on December 31, 
     1993, and contracted an occupational illness, basal cell 
     carcinoma, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and, during such 
     employment--
       ``(i) was present during an atmospheric or underground 
     nuclear test or performed drillbacks, tunnel re-entry, or 
     clean-up work following such a test (without regard to the 
     duration of employment);
       ``(ii) was present at an event involving the venting of an 
     underground test or during a planned or unplanned radiation 
     release (without regard to the duration of employment);
       ``(iii) was present during testing or post-test activities 
     related to nuclear rocket or ramjet engine testing at the 
     Nevada Test Site (without regard to the duration of 
     employment);
       ``(iv) was assigned to work at Area 51 or other classified 
     program areas of the Nevada Test Site (without regard to the 
     duration of employment); or
       ``(v) was employed at the Nevada Test Site, and was 
     employed in a job activity that--

       ``(I) was monitored for exposure to ionizing radiation; or
       ``(II) was comparable to a job that is, was, or should have 
     been monitored for exposure to ionizing radiation at the 
     Nevada Test Site.''.

       (b) Deadline for Claims Adjudication.--Claims for 
     compensation under section 3621(14)(D) of the Energy 
     Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
     2000, as added by subsection (a), shall be adjudicated and a 
     final decision issued--
       (1) in the case of claims pending as of the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, not later than 30 days after such 
     date; and
       (2) in the case of claims filed after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, not later than 30 days after the date 
     of such filing.
                                 ______