Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I strongly support this important step to compensate workers who became sick from occupational exposure to beryllium, radiation,
and other toxic substances as part of the Cold War build-up. I commend my colleagues Senator Thompson, Senator Voinovich, Senator DeWine, and Senator
Bingaman for their leadership on this issue.

During the cold war, thousands of men and women who worked at the nation's atomic weapons plants were exposed to unknown hazards. Many were exposed to
dangerous radioactive and chemical materials at far greater levels than their employers revealed. The debilitating, and often fatal, illnesses suffered by these workers
came in many forms of cancer, as well as other illnesses that are difficult to diagnose. This provision brings long overdue relief to these workers and their families.

The Department of energy investigated this issue. It found that workers who served for years to maintain and strengthen our defenses during the cold War were not
informed or protected against the health hazards they faced at work. Only during the Clinton Administration has the government openly acknowledged that these
workers were exposed to materials that were much more radioactive--and much more deadly--than previously revealed.

I commend Secretary Richardson for his leadership in bringing this issue to light, and for his efforts to close this tragic chapter in the nation's history for the thousands
of workers and their families whose lives were affected.

On of the earliest instances of the health dangers of beryllium occurred during World War II at the Sylvania Company in Salem, Massachusetts. At this plant,
doctors first identified cases of beryllium disease, an acute and often fatal lung illness that seemed similar to tuberculosis. At the time, the company used beryllium in
manufacturing fluorescent light bulbs.

Some of the earliest radiation experiments were conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge as part of the Manhattan Project. Scientists at
MIT were also among the first to conduct experiments with beryllium oxide ceramics for the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Corporation. Many of the
first cases of beryllium disease occurred among these scientists.

We have an opportunity today to remedy the wrongs suffered by these Department of Energy workers. Our amendment creates a basic framework for
compensation. It is the least we can do for workers who made such great sacrifices for our country during the cold war. They have already waited too long for this
relief.

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Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, I rise to offer an amendment along with a bipartisan group of Senators, including Senator Bingaman, Senator Voinovich,
Senator Kennedy, Senator DeWine, Senator Reid, Senator Thurmond, Senator Bryan, Senator Frist, Senator Murray, Senator Murkowski, Senator
Harkin, and Senator Stevens.

Mr. President, watching President Clinton's summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last weekend, I think we were all reminded of how far our two
nations have come over the past decade, since President Reagan implored President Gorbachev to `tear down (the Berlin) Wall,' and President Bush presided over
its destruction. While dangerous new threats have emerged, the Cold War that dominated the politics of our security for four decades is over, and the United States
won. We should be proud of that victory and we should never forget the strength and resolve through which it was achieved.

But it has become clear in recent months that that victory came at a high price for some of those who were most responsible for producing it. I am talking about
workers in our nuclear weapons facilities run by the Department of Energy or their contractors. We now have evidence that, in at least some instances, the federal
government that they had dedicated themselves to serving put these workers in harm's way without their knowledge.

I first became concerned about this issue three years ago when my hometown newspaper, the Nashville Tennessean, published a series of stories describing a
pattern of unexplained illnesses in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee area. Many of the current and former Oak Ridge workers profiled in the stories believed that their
illnesses were related to their service at the Department of Energy site. In 1997, I asked the Director of the Centers for Disease Control to send a team to Oak
Ridge to assess the situation and to try to determine if what we were seeing there was truly unique. Unfortunately, in the end, the CDC did not take a broad enough
look at the situation to really answer the questions that had been raised.

And that, of course, has been a pattern at Oak Ridge and at many DOE sites over the years. Countless health studies have been done, some on very narrow
populations and some on larger ones, some showing some correlations and some not able to reach any conclusions at all. The data is mixed, some of it is flawed, and
we are left with a situation that is confusing and from which it is very difficult to draw any definite conclusions.

And yet, there is a growing realization that there are illnesses among current and former DOE workers that logic tells us are related to their service at these weapons
sites. For example, hundreds of current and former workers in the DOE complex have been diagnosed with Chronic Beryllium Disease. Many more have so-called
`beryllium sensitivity,' which often develops into Chronic Beryllium Disease. The only way to contract either of these conditions is to be exposed to beryllium
powder. The only entities that use beryllium in that form are the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

And there are other examples, perhaps less clear cut, but certainly worthy of concern. Uranium, plutonium, and a variety of heavy metals found in people's bodies.
Anecdotes about hazardous working conditions where people were unprotected against both exposures they knew were there and exposures of which they were
not aware. It's time for the federal government to stop automatically denying any responsibility and face up to the fact that it appears as though it made at least some
people sick.

The question now is: what do we do about it? And how do we make sure it never happens again?

This amendment attempts to answer the first of those two questions. It would set up a program, administered by the Department of Labor, to provide compensation
to employees who are suffering from chronic beryllium disease, or from a radiation-related cancer that is determined to likely have been caused by exposures
received in the course of their service at a DOE facility. It would also provide a mechanism for employees suffering from exposures to hazardous chemicals and other
toxic substances in the workplace to gain access to state workers' compensation benefits, which are generally denied for such illnesses at present.

Mr. President, our amendment takes a science-based approach. It is not a blank check. It does not provide benefits to anyone and everyone who worked at a DOE
facility who has taken ill.

In the case of beryllium, we can say with certainty that if someone has chronic beryllium disease and they worked around beryllium powder, their disease is
work-related; there is no other way to get it.

The same is not true of cancer, of course. A physician cannot look at a tumor and say with certainty that it was caused by exposure to radiation, or by smoking, or
by a genetic disposition, or by any other factor. However, we do know that radiation in high doses has been linked to certain cancers, and we now know that some
workers at DOE facilities were exposed to radiation, often with inadequate protections.

What this amendment does is employ a mechanism developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute to determine
whether a worker's cancer is at least as likely as not related to exposures received in the course of their employment at a DOE facility. The model takes into account
the type of cancer, the dose received, the worker's age at the time of exposure, sex, lifestyle factors such as whether the worker smoked, and other relevant factors.

In many, if not most, cases, it should be possible to determine with a sufficient degree of accuracy the radiation dose a particular worker or group of workers
received. However, in some cases--because the Department of Energy kept inadequate or incomplete records, altered some of its records, and even tampered with
the dosimetry badges that workers were supposed to wear--it may not be possible to estimate with any degree of certainty the radiation dose a certain worker
received. For these workers, who are really the victims of DOE's bad behavior, our amendment provides an expedited track to compensation for a specified list of
radiation-related cancers.

Mr. President, the Governmental Affairs Committee, which I chair, held a hearing on this issue back in March. We heard testimony from several workers from Oak
Ridge, Tennessee and Piketon, Ohio who are suffering from devastating illnesses as a result of their service to our country. And of course, it is not just the workers
who are affected--it is their entire family that suffers emotionally, financially, and even physically.

In the end, we must remember that these workers were helping to win the cold war, to defend our Nation and protect our security. They were patriotic and proud of
the work that they were doing. If the Federal Government made mistakes that jeopardized their health and safety, then we need to do what we can to make it right.
That is what this amendment would do. I want to thank the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, for his support, as well as Senator
Levin. I urge the rest of my colleagues to support it as well.

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Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with Senator Thompson and others in offering this strongly bipartisan amendment. It addresses occupational
illnesses scientifically found to be associated with the DOE weapons complex, that have occurred and are now occurring because of activities during the cold war.

This amendment is a joint effort of a bipartisan group of Senators. Specifically, it has been put together by staff for myself, Senator Fred Thompson, Senator
George Voinovich, Senator Mike DeWine, and Senator Ted Kennedy. We have worked with the administration, with worker groups, and with manufacturers.
The staff have met with Armed Services Committee staff during the development of this amendment, and I want to acknowledge the chairman and ranking member
of the Armed Services Committee for their support for this amendment.

The workers in the DOE nuclear weapons complex, both at the production plants and the laboratories, helped us win the cold war. But that effort left a tragic
environmental and human legacy. We are spending billions of dollars each year on the environmental part--cleaning up the physical infrastructure that was
contaminated. But we also need to focus on the human legacy.

This amendment is an attempt to put right a situation that should not have occurred. But it proposes to do so in a way that is based on sound science.

The amendment focuses federal held on three classes of injured workers.

The first group is workers who were involved with beryllium. Beryllium is a non-radioactive metal that provokes, in some people, a highly allergic lung reaction. The
lungs become scarred, and no longer function.

The second group is workers who dug the tunnels for underground nuclear tests and are today suffering from chronic silicosis due to their occupational exposures to
silica, which were not adequately controlled by DOE.

The third group of workers are those who had dangerous doses of radiation on the job.

These workers were employed at numerous current and former DOE facilities. We have included a general definition of DOE and other type of facilities in the
legislation, in lieu of including a list that might be incomplete, but for purposes of helping in the implementation of this amendment, if enacted into law, I would like to
ask unanimous consent that a non-exclusive list of the facilities intended to be covered under this amendment be printed in the Record following my statement.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[See exhibit 1.]

Mr. BINGAMAN. For beryllium workers, there are tests today that can detect the first signs of trouble, called beryllium sensitivity, and also the actual impairment,
called chronic beryllium disease. If you have beryllium sensitivity, you are at a higher risk for developing chronic beryllium disease. You need annual check-ups with
tests that are expensive. If you develop chronic beryllium disease, you might be disabled or die.

This amendment sets up a federal workers' compensation program to provide medical benefits to workers who acquired beryllium sensitivity as a result of their work
for DOE. It provides both medical benefits and lost wage protection for workers who suffer disability or death from chronic beryllium disease.

For radiation, the situation is more complex. Radiation is proven to cause cancer in high doses. But when you look at a cancer tumor, you can't tell for sure whether
it was caused by an alpha particle of radiation from the workplace, a molecule of a carcinogen in something you ate, or even a stray cosmic ray from outer space.
But scientists can make a good estimate of the types of radiation doses that make it more likely than not that your cancer was caused by a workplace exposure.

This amendment puts the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in charge of making the causal connection between specific workplace exposures to
radiation and cancer. Within the HHS, it is envisioned by this amendment that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (or NIOSH) take the lead
for the tasks assigned by this amendment. Thus, the definition section of the amendment specifies that the Secretary of HHS act with the assistance of the Director of
NIOSH. This assignment follows a decision made in DOE during the Bush Administration, and ratified by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
1993, to give NIOSH the lead in identifying levels of exposure at DOE sites that present employees with significant health risks.

HHS was also given a Congressional mandate, in the Orphan Drug Act, to develop and publish radioepidemiolog-ical tables that estimate `the likelihood that
persons who have or have had any of the radiation related cancers and who have received specific doses prior to the onset of such disease developed cancer as a
result of those doses.' I would like to ask unanimous consent that a more detailed discussion of how the bill envisions these guidelines would be used be included as
an exhibit at the end of my remarks.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[See exhibit 2.]

Mr. BINGAMAN. Under guidelines developed by the HHS and used in this amendment, if your radiation does was high enough to make it at least as likely as not
that your cancer was DOE-work-related, you would be eligible for compensation for lost wages and medical benefits.

The HHS-based method will work for many of the workers at DOE sites. But it won't work for a significant minority who were exposed to radiation, but for whom
it would be infeasible to reconstruct their dose.

There are several reasons why reconstructing a dose might be--this infeasibility might exist. First, relevant records of dose may be lacking, or might not exist
altogether. Second, there might be a way to reconstruct the dose, but it would be prohibitively

expensive to do so. Finally, it might take so long to reconstruct a dose for a group of workers that they will all be dead before we have an answer that can be used
to determine their eligibility.

One of the workers who testified at my Los Alamos hearing might be an example of a worker who could fall into the cracks of a system that operated solely on dose
histories. He was a supervisor at what was called the `hot dump' at Los Alamos. All sorts of radioactive materials were taken there to be disposed of. It is hard to
reconstruct who handled what. And digging up the dump to see what was there would not only be very expensive, it would expose new workers to radiation risks
that could be large.

There are a few groups of workers that we know, today, belong in this category. They are specifically mentioned in the definition of Special Exposure Cohort. For
other workers to be placed in this special category, the decision that it was infeasible to reconstruct their dose would have to be made both by HHS and by an
independent external advisory committee of radiation, health, and workplace safety experts. We allow groups of workers to petition to be considered by the
advisory committee for inclusion in this group. Once a group of workers was placed in the category, it would be eligible for compensation for a fixed list of
radiation-related cancers.

The program in this amendment also allows, in section 3515, for a lump-sum payment, combined with ongoing medical coverage under section 8103 of title 5,
United States Code. This could be helpful, for example, in settling old cases of disability. It may be a good deal for survivors of deceased workers whose deaths
were related to their work at DOE sites.

The provisions of the workers' compensation program in this amendment are largely modeled after the Federal Employee's Compensation Program or FECA, which
is found in chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code. In many parts of the amendment, entire sections of FECA are incorporated by reference. In other sections,
portions of FECA are restated in more general language to account for the fact that the specific language in FECA would cover only Federal employees, while in this
amendment we are covering Federal contractor and subcontractor employees, as well. In some instances, we modified provisions in FECA to address known
problems in its current implementation or to reflect current standards of administrative law. One example of this is a decision not to incorporate section 8128(b) of
title 5, United States Code, into this amendment. That section absolutely precludes judicial review of decisions concerning a claim by the Department of Labor. Since
such decisions involve the substantive rights of individuals being conferred by this amendment, and since they are made through an informal administrative process, it
seems appropriate to the sponsors of this amendment that there be external review to guard against, for example, arbitrary and capricious conduct in processing a
claim.

The amendment also had numerous administrative provisions to ensure a fair process and to guard against double compensation for the same injury.

As the sponsors were developing this amendment, we received a lot of interest in federal compensation for exposure to other toxic substances. This amendment
does not provide federal compensation for chemical hazards in the DOE workplace, but does authorize DOE to work with States to get workers with adverse health
effects from their exposure to these substances into State worker compensation programs. It also would commission a GAO study of this approach so that we can
evaluate, in the context of a future bill, whether such an approach is effective.