Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

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By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself, Mr. AKAKA, and Mr. BINGAMAN):

S. 2098. A bill to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to clarify the eligibility of certain employees of the Department of Energy under that Act; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I send to the desk for appropriate reference legislation that will clarify that citizens of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands are eligible for coverage and potential compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, EEOICPA, for workers who developed radiogenic cancers and other ailments after working at the Pacific Test Site in the Marshall Islands.

An estimated up to 500 Republic of Marshall Islanders and other Micronesian workers may have been employed by the Department of Energy, or its predecessor agency, or Department subcontractors prior to 1986 when the Trusteeship was terminated for all areas except Palau. Both Bikini and Enewetak Atolls were the sites for numerous nuclear and thermonuclear tests. Other atolls, such as Rongelap and Utrik, were affected by fallout from the Bravo hydrogen bomb test in March 1954.

Congress, in 2000, approved a compensation program to provide aid and pay medical bills for those who suffered radiation-caused illnesses because of working on the nuclear weapons program. Congress specifically set up a ``Special Exposure Cohort'' to provide compensation to certain workers with radiogenic cancer and other illnesses because it was presumed that their illnesses resulted from workplace exposure to radiation caused by their Government work. Congress, in 2004, amended the act, first approved in the 2001 Military Construction Authorization Act, to speed payments of compensation, including funds for lost wages to workers or their heirs, to those who worked for the Department of Energy and its predecessor agency on nuclear weapons programs.

Earlier this year the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held an oversight hearing to review a number of issues raised by the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands related to the effects of the nuclear testing program. One of the issues was coverage for residents of the then-trust territory who were employed during the testing and subsequent cleanup. During that period, the United States was the administering authority over the area under a United Nations Trusteeship Agreement and exercised all the powers of a sovereign. It seems somewhat incongruous for the Congress to have established a program that applied to U.S. citizens but not to those who lived and worked under U.S. administration.

That also seems reasonable, since there is little other reason for the specific inclusion of the Pacific Test Site if the workers were not to be covered. During Senate debate, Senator BINGAMAN, a conferee on the amendment, submitted a list of DOE facilities intended to be covered by the act--a list which included the Marshall Islands, 146 Cong. Rec. S. 4754-7.

While most of the issues raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Marshall Islands during our oversight hearing are now being discussed with various Federal agencies under the auspices of Secretary of the Interior Norton, this is an issue that will require congressional action, given the interpretations from Federal agencies that questioned whether Congress intended the Act to apply extraterritorially. The act, of course, applies to individuals not jurisdictions and the specific mention of the Pacific Test Site and Enewetak would seem to indicate that Congress intended to include workers at the site.

Subsequent to the hearing, I had the privilege to meet privately with the President of the Marshall Islands when he visited Washington in early September. We had a good meeting and at the time I offered my assistance in ensuring that the proper agencies or groups would review the issues they had raised. As I indicated, most of these issues are properly now being discussed with representatives of the Marshalls through a multi-agency dialogue headed by Secretary Norton. This issue, however, may be one that is best handled directly through the congressional process. Therefore, when I was asked by the Marshall's Embassy here in Washington if I would introduce a bill to clarify worker eligibility so that the proper congressional committees could review it, I agreed.

Given the paperwork, record and radiation dosage requirements for receipt of compensation, it is far from clear how many Marshallese and Micronesian workers will actually qualify for the up to $150,000 in compensation, plus medical benefits and lost wage compensation for ailments caused by radiation stemming from the weapons tests. That is an issue that I hope the congressional committees will consider sympathetically. But it is only just that the program be opened equally to all Department of Energy workers or subcontract workers who labored to produce nuclear weapons to help this Nation's national defense at a critical period of the Cold War. As an Alaskan from a State whose workers have been compensated for injuries they gained resulting from underground weapons testing at Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Chain almost immediately after the ending of weapons testing in the atmosphere over the Marshall Islands, it is impossible not to support aid for the Marshallese.

While Congress and the administration continue to weigh additional aid to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, passage of this measure would be a sign of this Nation's continued commitment to aid the islanders who in February 1946 followed the advice of Bikinian leader, King Juda, and agreed to leave the Bikini Atoll so America could use it for weapons testing saying, ``We will go believing that everything is in the hands of God.''

I appreciate the understanding and the patience shown by the Marshall's Government and their citizens as we proceed to review the issues raised concerning the effects of the nuclear testing program, and I hope the introduction of this legislation will be seen as an example of our commitment to see that those issues receive a full and fair review and discussion.

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