[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12183-12184]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       GRANT AFFECTED STEEL WORKERS ELIGIBILITY FOR COMPENSATION

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, an alarming number of former employees at 
Bethlehem Steel in western New York are now suffering from cancer and 
other diseases due to radiation exposure as a result of having 
unknowingly worked with and around uranium during the Cold War.

[[Page 12184]]

  After a multiyear fight, and thanks to the determination of workers 
and their families, those who were employed at the site from 1949 to 
1952 are eligible for $150,000 in compensation for their injuries. 
However, the cutoff at 1952 is arbitrary because no serious mitigation 
was undertaken until 1976.
  Madam Speaker, those workers should also be eligible for just 
compensation. I am working with our Senators to urge the Centers for 
Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health to meet with these workers, hear their stories, and finally 
grant them eligibility for just compensation.

                          ____________________