S.Amdt. 3383

1. Adds SEC. 3146. INCLUSION OF CERTAIN FORMER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS IN SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER THE ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM at the end of subtitle D of title XXXI

   Adds a section

   In S. 2400 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   (j) Funding.--Of the amount authorized to be appropriated by section 3101(a)(4) for the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Office of the Administrator for Nuclear Security, $10,000,000 shall be available for deposit in the Fund under subsection (b)(1).

   Inserted: SEC. 3146. INCLUSION OF CERTAIN FORMER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM WORKERS IN SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT UNDER THE ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:

   Inserted: (1) Energy workers at the former Mallinkrodt facilities (including the St. Louis downtown facility and the Weldon Springs facility) were exposed to levels of radionuclides and radioactive materials that were much greater than the current maximum allowable Federal standards.

   Inserted: (2) The Mallinkrodt workers at the St. Louis site were exposed to excessive levels of airborne uranium dust relative to the standards in effect during the time, and many workers were exposed to 200 times the preferred levels of exposure.

   Inserted: (3)(A) The chief safety officer for the Atomic Energy Commission during the Mallinkrodt-St. Louis operations described the facility as 1 of the 2 worst plants with respect to worker exposures.

   Inserted: (B) Workers were excreting in excess of a milligram of uranium per day causing kidney damage.

   Inserted: (C) A recent epidemiological study found excess levels of nephritis and kidney cancer from inhalation of uranium dusts.

   Inserted: (4) The Department of Energy has admitted that those Mallinkrodt workers were subjected to risks and had their health endangered as a result of working with these highly radioactive materials.

   Inserted: (5) The Department of Energy reported that workers at the Weldon Springs feed materials plant handled plutonium and recycled uranium, which are highly radioactive.

   Inserted: (6) The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health admits that--

   Inserted: (A) the operations at the St. Louis downtown site consisted of intense periods of processing extremely high levels of radionuclides; and

   Inserted: (B) the Institute has virtually no personal monitoring data for Mallinkrodt workers prior to 1948.

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   Inserted: (7) The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has informed claimants and their survivors at those 3 Mallinkrodt sites that if they are not interviewed as a part of the dose reconstruction process, it--

   Inserted: (A) would hinder the ability of the Institute to conduct dose reconstruction for the claimant; and

   Inserted: (B) may result in a dose reconstruction that incompletely or inaccurately estimates the radiation dose to which the energy employee named in the claim had been exposed.

   Inserted: (8) Energy workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (also known as the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant and the Iowa Ordnance Plant) between 1947 and 1975 were exposed to levels of radionuclides and radioactive material, including enriched uranium, plutonium, tritium, and depleted uranium, in addition to beryllium and photon radiation, that are greater than the current maximum Federal standards for exposure.

   Inserted: (9) According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health--

   Inserted: (A) between 1947 and 1975, no records, including bioassays or air samples, have been located that indicate any monitoring occurred of internal doses of radiation to which workers described in paragraph (8) were exposed;

   Inserted: (B) between 1947 and 1955, no records, including dosimetry badges, have been located to indicate that any monitoring occurred of the external doses of radiation to which such workers were exposed;

   Inserted: (C) between 1955 and 1962, records indicate that only 8 to 23 workers in a workforce of over 1,000 were monitored for external radiation doses; and

   Inserted: (D) between 1970 and 1975, the high point of screening at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, only 25 percent of the workforce was screened for exposure to external radiation.

   Inserted: (10) The Department of Health and Human Services published the first notice of proposed rulemaking concerning the Special Exposure Cohort on June 25, 2002, and as of May 13, 2004, the rule has yet to be finalized.

   Inserted: (11) Many of those former workers have died while waiting for the proposed rule to be finalized, including some claimants who were waiting for dose reconstruction to be completed.

   Inserted: (12) Because of the aforementioned reasons, including the serious lack of records and the death of many potential claimants, it is not feasible to conduct valid dose reconstructions for the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant facility or the Mallinkrodt facilities.

   Inserted: (b) Inclusion of Certain Former Workers in Cohort.--Section 3621(14) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (title XXXVI of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106-398); 42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)) is amended--

   Inserted: (1) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as subparagraph (D); and

   Inserted: (2) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following new subparagraph (C):

   Inserted: "(C) Subject to the provisions of section 3612A, the employee was so employed for a number of work days aggregating at least 45 workdays at a facility operated under contract to the Department of Energy by Mallinkrodt Incorporated or its successors (including the St. Louis downtown or 'Destrahan' facility during any of calendar years 1942 through 1958 and the Weldon Springs feed materials plant facility during any of calendar years 1958 through 1966), or at a facility operated by the Department of Energy or under contract by Mason & Hangar-Silas Mason Company at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (also known as the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant and the Iowa Ordnance Plant) during any of the calendar years 1947 through 1975, and during the employment--

   Inserted: "(i)(I) was monitored through the use of dosimetry badges for exposure at the plant of the external parts of an employee's body to radiation; or

   Inserted: "(II) was monitored through the use of bioassays, in vivo monitoring, or breath samples for exposure at the plant to internal radiation; or

   Inserted: "(ii) worked in a job that had exposures comparable to a job that is monitored, or should have been monitored, under standards of the Department of Energy in effect on the date of enactment of this subparagraph through the use of dosimetry badges for monitoring external radiation exposures, or bioassays, in vivo monitoring, or breath samples for internal radiation exposures, at a facility.".

   Inserted: (c) Funding of Compensation and Benefits.--(1) Such Act is further amended by inserting after section 3612 the following new section:

   Inserted: "SEC. 3612A. FUNDING FOR COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT.

   Inserted: "(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Labor for each fiscal year after fiscal year 2004 such sums as may be necessary for the provision of compensation and benefits under the compensation program for members of the Special Exposure Cohort described in section 3621(14)(C) in such fiscal year.

   Inserted: "(b) Prohibition on Use for Administrative Costs.--(1) No amount authorized to be appropriated by subsection (a) may be utilized for purposes of carrying out the compensation program for the members of the Special Exposure Cohort referred to in that subsection or administering the amount authorized to be appropriated by subsection (a).

   Inserted: "(2) Amounts for purposes described in paragraph (1) shall be derived from amounts authorized to be appropriated by section 3614(a).

   Inserted: "(c) Provision of Compensation and Benefits Subject to Appropriations Acts.--The provision of compensation and benefits under the compensation program for members of the Special Exposure Cohort referred to in subsection (a) in any fiscal year shall be subject to the availability of appropriations for that purpose for such fiscal year and to applicable provisions of appropriations Acts.".

   Inserted: (2) Section 3612(d) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 7384e(d)) is amended--

   Inserted: (A) by inserting "(1)" before "Subject"; and

   Inserted: (B) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

   Inserted: "(2) Amounts for the provision of compensation and benefits under the compensation program for members of the Special Exposure Cohort described in section 3621(14)(C) shall be derived from amounts authorized to be appropriated by section 3612A(a).".

   Original wording

   At the end of subtitle D of title XXXI, insert the following:

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As printed