S 916 ISCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to include certain former nuclear weapons program workers in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, and for other purposes.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

April 28, 2009CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to include certain former nuclear weapons program workers in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, and for other purposes.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Ed Walker Memorial Act for Improvements to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program’.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) Beginning in the mid-1940s, workers at hundreds of facilities owned by the Federal Government and entities in the private sector produced and processed radioactive materials for use in the nuclear weapons program of the United States.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) Those workers at nuclear weapons facilities helped to build the nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but many of those workers paid a high price in terms of their health.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) During the Cold War, many workers at nuclear weapons facilities were exposed to radiation and placed in harm’s way by the Department of Energy and contractors, subcontractors, and vendors of the Department--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) without the knowledge and consent of the workers;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) without adequate radiation monitoring; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) without necessary protections from internal or external occupational radiation exposures.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) Because of the inequities described in paragraph (3) and the resulting potential harm to workers employed at nuclear weapons facilities, Congress designated classes of Cold War-era workers at the Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K-25, and Amchitka Island test sites as members of the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.).CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(5) The contribution of the State of New York to the security of the United States throughout the Cold War was very significant.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(6) Thirty-six former atomic weapons employer facilities or Department of Energy facilities that produced and processed radioactive materials, carried out classified research, operated nuclear reactors, and processed high level nuclear waste are located in New York. Fourteen of those facilities are located in the western region of New York.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(7) Research by the Department of Energy, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, and congressional committees indicates that--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) workers at certain atomic weapons employer facilities and Department of Energy facilities were not adequately monitored for internal or external exposures to ionizing radiation to which the workers were exposed during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) at other facilities, records were not maintained, or the records from those facilities are not reliable or failed to measure the radioactive isotopes to which workers were exposed.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(8) No personal radiation dosimetry monitoring records are available from the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New York, which falls within the definition of an atomic weapons employer facility under section 3621 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l).CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(9) Section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) authorizes the President, upon the recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, to designate additional classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort if it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the class received and there is a reasonable likelihood that the radiation dose may have endangered the health of members of the class.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(10) On May 28, 2004, the Secretary of Health and Human Services issued a final rule establishing procedures for designating additional classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort (69 Fed. Reg. 30,764).CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(11) Legislation is needed to provide additional parameters to the President, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health for evaluating petitions for inclusion in the Special Exposure Cohort of classes of employees with respect to which there was limited or nonexistent individual radiation exposure monitoring or an absence of records.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 3. ADDITION OF CLASSES OF FORMER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS TO THE SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM.

Section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) is amended--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) by inserting ‘(A)’ after ‘(1)’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as subparagraph (B);CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) by striking the period at the end and inserting ‘; or’; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) by adding at the end the following:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(2)(A) in the case of a class of employees employed at a Department of Energy facility or an atomic weapons employer facility during a period (in the aggregate) of at least 250 days (or a shorter duration connected to discrete events, as determined by the President) during which--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(i) the employees in the class had the potential for exposure to occupational ionizing radiation from production or processing materials related to atomic weapons, or engaged in research, development, testing, assembly, disassembly, decontamination, decommissioning, or waste management, or work related to such activities; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(ii)(I) fewer than 50 percent of the employees in the class were individually monitored on a regular basis (using reliable methods and procedures) under a formal health physics program for exposure to internal and external ionizing radiation for the types of radiation and specific radioactive isotopes to which the employees had the potential for exposure during the period when the employees were exposed;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(II) individual internal and external exposure records for the types of radiation and specific radioactive isotopes to which the employees in the class were potentially exposed at the facility during the period when the employees were exposed are nonexistent or are not available; orCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(III) to the extent that a portion of individual internal or external records are available for the period from the facility, individual radiation doses cannot be reliably determined for more than 2/3 of the employees in the class using the individual internal and external monitoring records from the facility; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





‘(B) in the case of a class of employees employed at a facility with respect to which the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has made the determination described in section 3169(b)(4) of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (Public Law 108-375; 42 U.S.C. 7384 note) during the residual contamination period described in such section, the employees at the facility met the criteria described in clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A).’.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 4. REGULATIONS.

(a) In General- Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall issue regulations for designating additional classes of employees as members of the Special Exposure Cohort under section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended by section 3.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(b) Bethlehem Steel Site- Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine under 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended by section 3, whether workers employed at the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New York, meet the requirements of such section for membership in the Special Exposure Cohort.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(c) Report- Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to Congress a report that identifies each of the following:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) Any Department of Energy facilities or atomic weapons employer facilities (as those terms are defined in section 3621 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l)) at which classes of employees were employed that meet the requirements for membership in the Special Exposure Cohort under section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended by section 3.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) The number of such classes.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) The number of employees in each such class.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink