I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1345 
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 
MARCH 6, 2007 
Mr. HIGGINS (for himself, Mr. REYNOLDS, 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 Labor, for a period 
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Com-
pensation Program Act of 2000 to include certain former 
nuclear weapons program workers in the Special Expo-
sure Cohort under the energy employees occupational 
illness compensation program. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
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(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 So-
viet 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, sub-
contractors, 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 in-
ternal or external occupational radiation expo-
sures; 
(4) due to the inequities posed by the factors 
described in paragraph (3) and the resulting poten-
tial harm, Congress legislatively designated classes 
of Cold War-era workers at the Paducah, Kentucky, 
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Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge K–25, and the Am-
chitka Island test sites as members of the Special 
Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occu-
pational 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 Depart-
ment of Energy that produced and processed radio-
active materials, carried out classified research, op-
erated nuclear reactors, and processed high level nu-
clear 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 Work-
er 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 
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(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 de-
fined in section 3621 of the Energy Employees Oc-
cupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l)), no personal radiation do-
simetry 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 work-
ers may have been endangered, the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services is authorized, after re-
ceiving advice from the Advisory Board on Radiation 
and Worker Health, to designate additional classes 
of workers as members of the Special Exposure Co-
hort 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 Serv-
ices promulgated regulations on May 28, 2004, to 
establish procedures for classes of individuals to pe-
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tition for membership in the Special Exposure Co-
hort; 
(10) section 3626(b) of the Energy Employees 
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 
2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(b)) provides for the designa-
tion of an additional class of employees in the Spe-
cial 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 Spe-
cial Exposure Cohort in cases in which there is lim-
ited or nonexistent individual radiation exposure 
monitoring or an absence of records. 
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