Amends 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.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) modify regulations and procedures to conform to amendments under this Act; and (2) initiate a petition to include workers employed at the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New York, as a class to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3481 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3481
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 27, 2005
Mr. Reynolds (for himself, Mr. Higgins, and Ms. Slaughter) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) employees working on Cold War-era nuclear weapons were
employed in hundreds of facilities owned by the Federal
Government and private sector producing and processing
radioactive materials for use in the nuclear weapons program of
the United States beginning in the mid-1940's;
(2) those atomic workers helped to build the nuclear
arsenal that served as a deterrent to the Soviet Union during
the Cold War, but many paid a high price in terms of their
health;
(3) during the Cold War, many atomic workers were exposed
to radiation and placed in harm's way by the Department of
Energy and contractors, subcontractors, and vendors of the
Department--
(A) without the knowledge and consent of the
workers;
(B) without adequate radiation monitoring; and
(C) without necessary protections from internal or
external occupational radiation exposures;
(4) due to the inequities posed by the factors described in
paragraph (3) and the resulting potential harm, Congress
legislatively designated classes of Cold War-era workers at the
Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K-25, and the
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.);
(5)(A) the contribution of the State of New York to the
security of the United States throughout the Cold War was very
significant; and
(B) New York is home to 36 former atomic weapons employer
facilities and sites of the Department of Energy that produced
and processed radioactive materials, carried out classified
research, operated nuclear reactors, and processed high level
nuclear waste, 14 of which are located in the western region of
New York;
(6) 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--
(A) workers at certain facilities were not
adequately monitored for internal or external exposures
to ionizing radiation to which the workers were exposed
during the 1940's to 1960's; and
(B) at other facilities, records were not
maintained, are not reliable, or fail to measure the
radioactive isotopes to which workers were exposed;
(7) at Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna, New York, an atomic
weapons employer facility (as defined in section 3621 of the
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act
of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l)), no personal radiation dosimetry
monitoring records are available;
(8) if it is determined that it is not feasible to estimate
radiation dose with sufficient accuracy and there is a
reasonable likelihood that a class of workers may have been
endangered, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is
authorized, after receiving advice from the Advisory Board on
Radiation and Worker Health, to designate additional classes of
workers as members of the Special Exposure Cohort under section
3626 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q);
(9) the Secretary of Health and Human Services promulgated
regulations on May 28, 2004, to establish procedures for
classes of individuals to petition for membership in the
Special Exposure Cohort;
(10) section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b))
provides for the designation of an additional class 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; and
(11) legislation is needed to provide additional parameters
to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Advisory
Board on Radiation and Worker Health for evaluating petitions
for the Special Exposure Cohort in cases in which there is
limited or nonexistent individual radiation exposure monitoring
or an absence of records.
SEC. 2. ADDITION OF CLASSES OF FORMER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS
IN 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--
(1) by inserting ``(A)'' after ``(1)'';
(2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as subparagraph (B);
(3) by striking the period at the end and inserting ``;
or''; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(2)(A) subject to subparagraph (B), in the case of a
class of employees employed at an atomic weapons employer
facility or a Department of Energy facility during a period (in
the aggregate) of at least 250 days (or a shorter duration
connected to discrete events, as determined by the Secretary)
during which--
``(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; and
``(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;
``(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; or
``(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 greater than \2/3\ of
the employees in the class using the individual
internal and external monitoring records from the
facility; and
``(B) in the case of a class of employees employed at a
facility for which the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health has updated the report and 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 a period
determined under the report, during which (as determined by the
Secretary) the employees at the facility met the criteria
described in clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A).''.
SEC. 3. REGULATIONS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall modify
the regulations and procedures of the Secretary relating to the Special
Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.) to conform
the regulations and procedures to section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as
amended by section 2).
(b) Bethlehem Steel Site.--
(1) Initiation of petition.--Not later than 90 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and
Human Services shall initiate a petition to include workers
employed at the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New York as
a class to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort in
accordance with section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as
amended by section 2).
(2) Evaluation.--The evaluation of the petition shall be
conducted in accordance with section 3626 of the Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000
(42 U.S.C. 7384q).
(c) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to
Congress a report that identifies the facilities, classes, and the
number of claimants in each class who meet the criteria established
under section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as amended by section 2) for
membership in the Special Exposure Cohort.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line