I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3864 
To provide coverage under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Com-
pensation Program for individuals employed at atomic weapons employer 
facilities during periods of residual contamination. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 26, 2004 
Ms. SLAUGHTER (for herself, Mr. QUINN, Mr. STRICKLAND, and Mr. 
WHITFIELD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee 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 provide coverage under the Energy Employees Occupa-
tional Illness Compensation Program for individuals em-
ployed at atomic weapons employer facilities during peri-
ods of residual contamination. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Residual Radioactive 
Contamination Compensation Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Beginning in the early 1940s, the Depart-
ment of Energy and its predecessors, the Atomic 
Energy Commission and the Manhattan Engineering 
District, relied upon hundreds of private-sector fac-
tories and laboratories to develop, test, and produce 
atomic weapons for use by the military, and these 
facilities became contaminated with radioactive ma-
terials during the atomic weapons production proc-
ess. 
(2) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (in this section 
referred to as ‘‘EEOICPA’’) provides health care 
and lump-sum benefits for radiation-related cancers 
and other illnesses to certain covered workers made 
sick while they toiled in the nation’s nuclear weap-
ons factories, including vendor facilities. EEOICPA 
defines these private-sector vendor facilities as 
‘‘atomic weapons employer facilities’’, and employees 
working in such facilities while their employers were 
under contract to process nuclear weapons materials 
are defined as ‘‘atomic weapons employees’’. 
(3) Many of the atomic weapons employer fa-
cilities were not properly decontaminated after proc-
essing radioactive materials such as thorium, ura-
nium, and radium and retained significant levels of 
contamination. Workers who were hired and em-
ployed in such atomic weapons employer facilities 
after the date that contracts ended for production 
were potentially exposed to significant amounts of 
radiation. Congress was not aware of the presence of 
residual radioactive contamination in these facilities 
when it enacted EEOICPA, thus inadvertently deny-
ing coverage under the law to those who were unwit-
tingly exposed to radiation left over from nuclear 
weapons activities. 
(4) In December 2001, the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 
107–107) was enacted, which required in section 
3151(b) that the National Institute for Occupational 
Safety and Health study and issue a final report to 
Congress by December 2002 describing which of the 
atomic weapons employer facilities had significant 
residual radioactive contamination remaining in 
them after processing materials for use in atomic 
weapons and during what time periods such radio-
active contamination remained. 
(5) In October 2003, the Institute issued a re-
port, titled ‘‘Report on Residual Radioactive and Be-
ryllium Contamination in Atomic Weapons Employer
and Beryllium Vendor Facilities’’. The report found 
that, out of 219 atomic weapons employer facili-
ties— 
(A) 97 (44 percent) of such facilities have 
potential for significant residual radioactive 
contamination outside of the periods in which 
atomic weapons-related production occurred; 
(B) 88 (40 percent) of such facilities have 
little potential for significant residual radio-
active contamination outside of the periods in 
which atomic weapons-related production oc-
curred; and 
(C) 34 (16 percent) of such facilities have 
insufficient information to make a determina-
tion. 
(6) Congress is now aware that workers were 
employed in a substantial number of atomic weapons 
employer facilities years after the Manhattan Project 
ended. These workers were potentially harmed by 
legacy residual radioactive contamination that per-
meated the walls, the floors, and the air of their 
worksites well after the Atomic Energy Commission 
and the Department of Energy terminated contracts 
for production activities. This exposure to residual
radioactive contamination took place without the 
knowledge or consent of these workers. 
(7) Congress therefore declares that, based on 
the scientific assessment by the Institute, those 
workers hired and employed in such facilities during 
the period after Cold War production stopped but 
during which the Institute found there was signifi-
cant residual radioactive contamination should be 
defined as ‘‘atomic weapons employees’’ under 
EEOICPA, should be eligible to apply for compensa-
tion under subtitle B of EEOICPA, and should have 
their claims evaluated on the same basis as those 
atomic weapons employees who were employed dur-
ing the period when processing of radioactive mate-
rials was underway as part of the atomic weapons 
program. 
SEC. 3. COVERAGE UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPA-
TIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM 
OF 
INDIVIDUALS 
EMPLOYED 
AT 
ATOMIC 
WEAPONS EMPLOYER FACILITIES DURING 
PERIODS OF RESIDUAL CONTAMINATION. 
Paragraph (3) of section 3621 of the Energy Employ-
ees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(3) The term ‘atomic weapons employee’ 
means any of the following: 
‘‘(A) An individual employed at an atomic 
weapons employer facility during a period when 
the employer was processing or producing, for 
the use by the United States, material that 
emitted radiation and was used in the produc-
tion of an atomic weapon, excluding uranium 
mining and milling. 
‘‘(B) An individual employed— 
‘‘(i) at an atomic weapons employer 
facility with respect to which the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health, in its report dated October 2003 
and titled ‘Report on Residual Radioactive 
and Beryllium Contamination at Atomic 
Weapons Employer Facilities and Beryl-
lium Vendor Facilities’, or any update to 
that report, found that there is a potential 
for significant residual contamination out-
side of the period in which weapons-related 
production occurred; and 
‘‘(ii) during a period, as specified in 
such report or any update to such report,