II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 776 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 6, 2007 

Mrs. CLINTON (for herself and Mr. SCHUMER) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds that— 

5 (1) employees working on Cold War-era nuclear 

6 weapons were employed in hundreds of facilities 

7 owned by the Federal Government and private sector 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
2 

•S 776 IS

1 producing and processing radioactive materials for 

2 use in the nuclear weapons program of the United 

3 States beginning in the mid-1940’s; 

4 (2) those atomic workers helped to build the 

5 nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent to the So6 viet Union during the Cold War, but many paid a 

7 high price in terms of their health; 

8 (3) during the Cold War, many atomic workers 

9 were exposed to radiation and placed in harm’s way 

10 by the Department of Energy and contractors, sub11 contractors, and vendors of the Department— 

12 (A) without the knowledge and consent of 

13 the workers; 

14 (B) without adequate radiation monitoring; 

15 and 

16 (C) without necessary protections from in17 ternal or external occupational radiation expo18 sures; 

19 (4) due to the inequities posed by the factors 

20 described in paragraph (3) and the resulting poten21 tial harm, Congress legislatively designated classes 

22 of Cold War-era workers at the Paducah, Kentucky, 

23 Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K–25, and the Am24 chitka Island test sites as members of the Special 

25 Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees OccuVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:10 Mar 08, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S776.IS S776

ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
3 

•S 776 IS

1 pational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

2 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.); 

3 (5)(A) the contribution of the State of New 

4 York to the security of the United States throughout 

5 the Cold War was very significant; and 

6 (B) New York is home to 36 former atomic 

7 weapons employer facilities and sites of the Depart8 ment of Energy that produced and processed radio9 active materials, carried out classified research, op10 erated nuclear reactors, and processed high level nu11 clear waste, 14 of which are located in the western 

12 region of New York; 

13 (6) research by the Department of Energy, the 

14 National Institute for Occupational Safety and 

15 Health, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Work16 er Health, and congressional committees indicates 

17 that— 

18 (A) workers at certain facilities were not 

19 adequately monitored for internal or external 

20 exposures to ionizing radiation to which the 

21 workers were exposed during the 1940’s to 

22 1960’s; and 

23 (B) at other facilities, records were not 

24 maintained, are not reliable, or fail to measure 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
4 

•S 776 IS

1 the radioactive isotopes to which workers were 

2 exposed; 

3 (7) at Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna, New 

4 York, an atomic weapons employer facility (as de5 fined in section 3621 of the Energy Employees Oc6 cupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 

7 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l)), no personal radiation do8 simetry monitoring records are available; 

9 (8) if it is determined that it is not feasible to 

10 estimate radiation dose with sufficient accuracy and 

11 there is a reasonable likelihood that a class of work12 ers may have been endangered, the Secretary of 

13 Health and Human Services is authorized, after re14 ceiving advice from the Advisory Board on Radiation 

15 and Worker Health, to designate additional classes 

16 of workers as members of the Special Exposure Co17 hort under section 3626 of the Energy Employees 

18 Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 

19 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q); 

20 (9) the Secretary of Health and Human Serv21 ices promulgated regulations on May 28, 2004, to 

22 establish procedures for classes of individuals to pe23 tition for membership in the Special Exposure Co24 hort; 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
5 

•S 776 IS

1 (10) section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees 

2 Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 

3 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) provides for the designa4 tion of an additional class of employees in the Spe5 cial Exposure Cohort if it is not feasible to estimate 

6 with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the 

7 class received and there is a reasonable likelihood 

8 that the radiation dose may have endangered the 

9 health of members of the class; and 

10 (11) legislation is needed to provide additional 

11 parameters to the Secretary of Health and Human 

12 Services and the Advisory Board on Radiation and 

13 Worker Health for evaluating petitions for the Spe14 cial Exposure Cohort in cases in which there is lim15 ited or nonexistent individual radiation exposure 

16 monitoring or an absence of records. 

17 SEC. 2. ADDITION OF CLASSES OF FORMER NUCLEAR 

18 WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS IN THE SPE19 CIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER ENERGY 

20 EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COM21 PENSATION PROGRAM. 

22 Section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees Occupa23 tional Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 

24 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) is amended— 

25 (1) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘(1)’’; 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
6 

•S 776 IS

1 (2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as subpara2 graph (B); 

3 (3) by striking the period at the end and insert4 ing ‘‘; or’’; and 

5 (4) by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(2)(A) subject to subparagraph (B), in the 

7 case of a class of employees employed at an atomic 

8 weapons employer facility or a Department of En9 ergy facility during a period (in the aggregate) of at 

10 least 250 days (or a shorter duration connected to 

11 discrete events, as determined by the Secretary) dur12 ing which— 

13 ‘‘(i) the employees in the class had the po14 tential for exposure to occupational ionizing ra15 diation from production or processing materials 

16 related to atomic weapons, or engaged in re17 search, development, testing, assembly, dis18 assembly, decontamination, decommissioning, or 

19 waste management, or work related to such ac20 tivities; and 

21 ‘‘(ii)(I) fewer than 50 percent of the em22 ployees in the class were individually monitored 

23 on a regular basis (using reliable methods and 

24 procedures) under a formal health physics pro25 gram for exposure to internal and external ionVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:10 Mar 08, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S776.IS S776

ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
7 

•S 776 IS

1 izing radiation for the types of radiation and 

2 specific radioactive isotopes to which the em3 ployees had the potential for exposure during 

4 the period when the employees were exposed; 

5 ‘‘(II) individual internal and external expo6 sure records for the types of radiation and spe7 cific radioactive isotopes to which the employees 

8 in the class were potentially exposed at the fa9 cility during the period when the employees 

10 were exposed are nonexistent or are not avail11 able; or 

12 ‘‘(III) to the extent that a portion of indi13 vidual internal or external records are available 

14 for the period from the facility, individual radi15 ation doses cannot be reliably determined for 

greater than 2 16 ⁄3 of the employees in the class 

17 using the individual internal and external moni18 toring records from the facility; and 

19 ‘‘(B) in the case of a class of employees em20 ployed at a facility for which the National Institute 

21 for Occupational Safety and Health has updated the 

22 report and made the determination described in sec23 tion 3169(b)(4) of the Ronald W. Reagan National 

24 Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 

25 (Public Law 108–375; 42 U.S.C. 7384 note) during 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
8 

•S 776 IS

1 a period determined under the report, during which 

2 (as determined by the Secretary) the employees at 

3 the facility met the criteria described in clauses (i) 

4 and (ii) of subparagraph (A).’’. 

5 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

7 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 

8 Human Services shall modify the regulations and proce9 dures of the Secretary relating to the Special Exposure 

10 Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

11 Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et 

12 seq.) to conform the regulations and procedures to section 

13 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

14 Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as amended by sec15 tion 2). 

16 (b) BETHLEHEM STEEL SITE.— 

17 (1) INITIATION OF PETITION.—Not later than 

18 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 

19 Secretary of Health and Human Services shall ini20 tiate a petition to include workers employed at the 

21 Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, New York as 

22 a class to be included in the Special Exposure Co23 hort in accordance with section 3626(b)(2) of the 

24 Energy Employees Occupational Illness CompensaVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:10 Mar 08, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S776.IS S776

ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS
9 

•S 776 IS

1 tion Program Act of 2000 (as amended by section 

2 2). 

3 (2) EVALUATION.—The evaluation of the peti4 tion shall be conducted in accordance with section 

5 3626 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

6 Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 

7 7384q). 

8 (c) REPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the date 

9 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 

10 Human Services shall submit to Congress a report that 

11 identifies the facilities, classes, and the number of claim12 ants in each class who meet the criteria established under 

13 section 3626(b)(2) of the Energy Employees Occupational 

14 Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as amended 

15 by section 2) for membership in the Special Exposure Co16 hort. 

Æ 


ccoleman on PROD1PC60 with BILLS