[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 904 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 904
To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the
course of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 7, 2007
Mr. Udall of Colorado (for himself and Mr. Perlmutter) 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
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the
course of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Rocky Flats Special Exposure Cohort
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
(1) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.) (referred to in
this section as the ``Act'') was enacted to ensure fairness and
equity for the civilian men and women who, during the past 50
years, performed duties uniquely related to the nuclear weapons
production and testing programs of the Department of Energy and
its predecessor agencies by establishing a program that would
provide efficient, uniform, and adequate compensation for
beryllium-related health conditions and radiation-related
health conditions.
(2) The Act provides a process for consideration of claims
for compensation by individuals who were employed at relevant
times at various locations, but also includes provisions
designating employees at certain other locations as members of
a special exposure cohort whose claims are subject to a less-
detailed administrative process.
(3) The Act also authorizes the President, upon
recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker
Health, to designate additional classes of employees at
Department of Energy facilities as members of the special
exposure cohort if the President determines that--
(A) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient
accuracy the radiation dose that the class received;
and
(B) there is a reasonable likelihood that the
radiation dose may have endangered the health of
members of the class.
(4) It has become evident that it is not feasible to
estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose received
by employees at the Department of Energy facility in Colorado
known as the Rocky Flats site for the following reasons:
(A) Many worker exposures were unmonitored or were
not monitored adequately over the lifetime of the plant
at the Rocky Flats site. Even in 2004, a former worker
from the 1950's agreed to be scanned under the former
radiation worker program of the Department of Energy
and was found to have a significant internal deposition
of radiation that had been undetected and unrecorded
for more than 50 years.
(B) No lung counter for detecting and measuring
plutonium and americium in the lungs existed at Rocky
Flats until the late 1960s. Without this equipment, the
very insoluble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be
detected, and a large number of workers had inhalation
exposures that went undetected and unmeasured.
(C) Exposure to neutron radiation was not monitored
at the Rocky Flats site until the late 1950's, and most
of those measurements through 1970 have been found to
be in error. In some areas of the plant at the site,
the neutron doses were as much as 2 to 10 times as
great as the gamma doses received by workers, but only
gamma doses were recorded.
(D) Radiation exposures of many workers at the
Rocky Flats site were not measured (and in some cases
estimated doses were assigned), while some records have
been destroyed or lost. As a result, the exposure
histories and other data available are not adequate to
properly determine whether Rocky Flats workers qualify
for compensation under the Act.
(E) The model that has been used for dose
reconstruction by the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (referred to in this
section as the ``Institute'') in determining whether
Rocky Flats workers qualify for compensation under the
Act is in error. The default values used for particle
size and solubility of the internally deposited
plutonium in workers are in error. Use of these
erroneous values to calculate internal doses for
claimants can result in dose calculations of as much as
3 to 10 times below what the Rocky Flats records and
autopsy data indicate.
(5) The administrative costs related to Rocky Flats claims
have been disproportionately high relative to the number of
claims that have been processed.
(6) Some Rocky Flats workers, despite having worked with
tons of plutonium and having known exposures leading to serious
health effects, have been denied compensation under the Act as
a result of potentially flawed calculations based on records
that are incomplete or in error, as well as the use of
incorrect models.
(7) Achieving the purposes of the Act with respect to
workers at Rocky Flats is more likely to be achieved if claims
by those workers are subject to the administrative procedures
applicable to members of the special exposure cohort.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to revise the Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to
include certain Rocky Flats workers as members of the special exposure
cohort.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT.
(a) In General.--Section 3621(14) of the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C.
7384l(14)) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
``(D) The employee was so employed for a number of
work days aggregating at least 250 work days before
January 1, 2006, by the Department of Energy or a
Department of Energy contractor or subcontractor at the
Rocky Flats site in Colorado.''.
(b) Reapplication.--A claim that an individual qualifies, by reason
of section 3621(14)(D) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (as added by subsection (a) of this
Act), for compensation or benefits under such Act shall be considered
for compensation or benefits notwithstanding any denial of any other
claim for compensation with respect to such individual.
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