National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to acknowledge Senator WARNER and Senator LEVIN for their efforts on this legislation, which is vital to the men and women of our military and our national security. At this time, I, along with my colleague Senator CLINTON, would like to engage Senators WARNER and LEVIN in a colloquy regarding the needs of employees who worked in Department of Energy, DOE, and DOE-contractor facilities on atomic weapons-related production in New York and throughout the United States.

Mrs. CLINTON. I also wish to recognize the efforts of my friends from Virginia and Michigan on this bill and their willingness to engage in this colloquy in order to discuss the needs of New York's former nuclear workers and the necessity of providing them with prompt access to the compensation they have earned through service to this country.

Mr. WARNER. I thank the Senators from New York for their remarks, and would be happy to engage them in a colloquy.

Mr. LEVIN. I am also happy to engage in this colloquy with the Senators form New York.

Mr. SCHUMER. I thank my esteemed colleagues, Mr. WARNER and Mr. LEVIN, for recognizing the common plight among sick workers throughout our great Nation. In my home State of New York, thousands of nuclear workers labored for decades during the cold war in hazardous conditions at DOE and contractor facilities unaware of the health risks. These workers helped to create the huge nuclear arsenal that served as a deterrent to the Soviet Union during the cold war, but many paid a high price in terms of their health. It is now our obligation to assist them in all possible ways, so that their sacrifices do not go unrecognized.

Mrs. CLINTON. I wholeheartedly agree with the senior Senator from New York. Our State's contribution to America's security throughout the cold war was large and important. New York is home to 36 former atomic weapons employer sites and DOE facilities-more than any other State in the Nation. Fourteen of these facilities are located in the western New York region alone.

Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000, Congress made a promise to the people who worked at these sites and others like them across the country that they would receive uniform, timely compensation under the act under certain conditions. But to date, NIOSH has completed just one of the many needed site profiles in New York that are needed to administer the program.

One of the provisions of that act provides for what is known as a special exposure cohort. The act named facilities in four States that would be added to the special cohort, which in essence results in prompt payment of benefits under the act without the need to go through a dose reconstruction process.

The Bond-Harkin amendment would, under certain conditions, add several facilities in Missouri and Iowa to this special exposure cohort. I am very sympathetic to the plight of these workers, but I am even more concerned about the workers that I represent. Many of the New York workers are in very similar plights as the workers in Missouri and Iowa who might be helped by the Bond-Harkin amendment.

I am encouraged that the amendment recognizes this fact, in that it includes a sense of the Senate declaring that all eligible employees deserve fair and equitable consideration under the act's special exposure cohort provisions.

Mr. SCHUMER. I agree, and hope that when the Bond-Harkin amendment is discussed in conference, the Senators from Virginia and Michigan will take into consideration the workers in New York and throughout the country who share a similar set of circumstances to those workers in Iowa and Missouri. In particular, I would ask that they look at how the special exposure cohort issue can be addressed in the most equitable way possible, and contemplate options that would provide for equitable access to the special exposure cohort for New York's workers.