S.Amdt. 1525

1. Adds SEC. ___. SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORTS wherever appropriate

   Adds a section

   Inserted: SEC. ___. SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORTS.

   Inserted: (a) Reports on Special Exposure Cohorts.--

   Inserted: (1) Initial report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (referred to in this section as the "Director") shall prepare and submit as described in paragraph (4) a report identifying the Department of Energy facilities, and atomic weapons employer facilities, at which a class of employees is reasonably likely to qualify for treatment as members of the Special Exposure Cohort under section 3626 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q), in the event that the class submits a petition as described in subsection (a)(3) of such section.

   Inserted: (2) Contents.--

   Inserted: (A) In general.--The report shall--

   Inserted: (i) list and describe each of the classes of employees referred to in paragraph (1), including the job categories and time periods of employment for such classes;

   Inserted: (ii) state a rationale or basis for describing those classes as reasonably likely to qualify for treatment as members of the Special Exposure Cohort;

   Inserted: (iii) indicate whether any of the described classes are multi-facility classes; and

   Inserted: (iv) state the number of claimants with pending claims in the described classes.

   Inserted: (B) Research.--The report shall be based on research conducted by the Director and by contractors of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

   Inserted: (C) List of facilities reviewed.--The report shall list facilities where the Director has conducted a review, for purposes of making the identification described in paragraph (1), and facilities where the Director has not conducted such a review.

   Inserted: (D) Plan.--The report shall specify a plan to assist petitioners at facilities identified in the report in filing petitions under subsection (a)(3) of such section 3626.

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   Inserted: (3) Updated report.--Not later than 12 months after submitting an initial report under this section, the Director shall update the report and submit the updated report as described in paragraph (4).

   Inserted: (4) Submission and dissemination.--

   Inserted: (A) Submission.--The Director shall submit the reports described in this section--

   Inserted: (i) to the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives;

   Inserted: (ii) to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and

   Inserted: (iii) to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, for the purpose of obtaining the Board's recommendations.

   Inserted: (B) Dissemination.--The Director shall make the reports available in electronic and printed form.

   Inserted: (5) Construction.--Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to suggest that the decision of the Director to identify a facility or describe a class of employees for a report submitted under this subsection constitutes a prejudgement on the outcome of a petition filed under subsection (a)(3) of such section 3626 by a class of employees at such facility, or a response to a recommendation by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health under subsection (a)(1) of such section relating to such a class of employees.

   Inserted: (b) Special Exposure Cohort.--Section 3626(a) of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384q(a)) is amended--

   Inserted: (1) in paragraph (1)--

   Inserted: (A) by inserting "or atomic weapons employer facility" after "Department of Energy facility"; and

   Inserted: (B) by striking "that facility" and inserting "the facility involved"; and

   Inserted: (2) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the following: "For purposes of establishing procedures and considering petitions under this paragraph, a reference to a facility shall be considered to include a reference to multiple facilities with a common class of employees, to permit the President to treat a multiple-facility exposure cohort as members of the Special Exposure Cohort.".

   Inserted: (c) Residual Contamination.--

   Inserted: (1) Adjudication.--Not later than 21 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall reinstate and commence adjudication of all claims filed under subtitle B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l et seq.) as a result of changes the definition of the term "atomic weapons employee" made by the amendment in section 3168(a) of division A of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (Public Law 108-375; 118 Stat. 2190).

   Inserted: (2) Report.--Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate a report that--

   Inserted: (A) identifies all of the atomic weapons employer facilities; and

   Inserted: (B) states the number of claims under such subtitle that were denied due to the fact that the initial employment of the atomic weapons employee involved occurred before the covered period when the employer involved was processing or producing material that emitted radiation and was used in the production of an atomic weapon, and the number of related cases.

   Inserted: (3) Definitions.--As used in this section, the terms "atomic weapons employee" and "atomic weapons employer facilities" have the meanings given the terms in section 3621 of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l).

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As printed