The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S3144-S3146 on March 29, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to imagine the following nightmare:
You have spent years in the uranium mines helping to build America's nuclear programs. As a result, you have contracted a debilitating and too often deadly radiation-related disease that has caused severe emotional and physical suffering. Most of life's joys have long since ended.
Your only solace is that the government is going to pay you for this suffering. Certainly, the money will never be enough to compensate you for what you've lost, but at least your medical bills will be paid. At least, if you lose this fight your family will be left with money.
However, when you open the Justice Department letter that you have long awaited, it reads:
I am pleased to inform you that your claim for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has been approved. Regretfully, because the money available to pay claims has been exhausted, we are unable to send a compensation payment to you at this time. When Congress provides additional funds, we will contact you to commence the payment process. Thank you for your understanding.
Unfortunately, my fellow Senators, this is not a bad dream, but rather the terrible reality for hundreds of uranium miners, federal workers, and downwinders who have contracted these deadly radiation-
related diseases. One such individual is Bob Key.
Bob Key helped build our nation's nuclear arsenal and end the Cold War through his difficult work as a uranium miner. Little did he know at the time that the uranium was slowly ravaging his body. As a result, Mr. Key has spent many years enduring the grueling pain associated with pulmonary fibrosis, which requires him to be hooked to an oxygen tank for hours on end. Recently, Mr. Key, 61, needed a tracheotomy simply to help him breathe.
Yet, despite his enormous suffering, Mr. Key has not received the
$100,000 compensation from the government for which he is entitled under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990. Instead, he received a five-line IOU from the Justice Department stating that there was not enough money to indemnify him for his suffering. This is a disgrace.
Unfortunately, Mr. Key's horror story is a familiar one for many uranium miners, federal workers, and downwinders from New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. In some cases,the miners have died and their loved ones are left holding nothing but a Justice Department IOU. In 1990, when we passed the Domenici-authored Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, we never envisioned that these miners would receive IOUs. However, the fund is now bankrupt because of expansions in the program and Congress' failure to appropriate enough money.
This injustice must be rectified. I rise today to urge my colleagues to remedy this lack of funding. Those who gave so much for our nation's security through their work on our nuclear programs must be compensated for the enormous price they paid. Anything less is unacceptable.
Senator Hatch and I have introduced two bills that will provide full funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund. We proposed legislation seeking $84 million in emergency supplemental appropriations to pay those claims that have already been approved as well as the projected number of approved claims for fiscal year 2001. This legislation would also make all future payments for approved claims mandatory.
With this legislation, we will ensure that those who gave so much for our nation will at least receive their deserved benefits. We must never again let their sacrifice go unanswered. I again ask my Senate colleagues to help us right this wrong and give these victims their just compensation. I ask unanimous consent that the March 27 New York Times article be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Ill Uranium Miners Left Waiting As Payments for Exposure Lapse
(By Michael Janofsky)
Grand Junction, Colo., March 20.--For all the reminders of Bob Key's cold war effort, mining uranium for American nuclear weapons programs, none stands out more than the tank of oxygen tethered to his throat. Mr. Key, 61, has pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that is often fatal. A recent tracheotomy helps air flow to his lungs through a tube connected to the tank.
A decade ago, Congress recognized the contributions of Mr. Key and other uranium miners and passed the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990. Signed by President George Bush, the law established one-time payments of up to
$100,000 to miners or their families and to people who lived downwind from the nuclear test sites in Nevada. Last year, Congress increased the payout to $150,000, added new medical benefits and expanded the number of workers eligible.
But after years of smooth operations, the program is broke. Scrambling last year to pass President Bill Clinton's final budget, lawmakers never debated the Justice Department's request for additional money to cover the expanded program even as new applications were pouring in, and by May, nothing was left. And Congress has been reluctant to act until it decides how to apportion the federal surplus and how much to cut taxes.
As a result, for the first time, claims from hundreds of eligible applicants like Mr. Key have been held up, with many of the applicants receiving i.o.u. letters from the Justice Department, which administers the program, saying their requests will be processed only after Congress appropriates more money.
And the demand is only increasing. Claims from another 1,600 applicants under the original law are pending, and the department estimates that as many as 1,050 new applicants are expected to file for benefits this year, a number that would raise the cost of the program to more than $80 million.
``It's been a bureaucratic travesty,'' said Representative Scott McInnis, a republican from Grand Junction, a city in western Colorado, who introduced legislation this year seeking $84 million to restore the program. ``These people are due their compensation. There is nothing to be adjudicated. The money is owed. The debt is due.''
For now, Congress has not decided how or when to continue the program. Lawmakers are discussing the possibility of legislation as part of the current year's budget to provide money right away.
Meanwhile, almost 200 people who have been approved for the money are still holding the i.o.u.'s, including relatives of some miners who have died of their illnesses while waiting.
``Just since January, we've lost five clients, and I'm sure there are more we're not aware of,'' said Keith Killian, a lawyer here who represents former uranium miners and their families. Rebecca Rockwell, a private investigator in Durango, Colo., said she represented the families of at least 10 clients with i.o.u. letters who have died.
Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, both Republicans, have introduced legislation similar to Mr. McInnis's, asking for enough money to pay all claims through this year and to make the program a permanent entitlement so Congress does not have to authorize spending each year. They have urged President Bush to include money for the program in a supplemental budget proposal for the current fiscal year.
But miners and their families have been told that no new spending is likely until Congress resolves its fiscal issues, a process that could delay disbursement of the miners' money for months, even a year.
``I'm bitter about it,'' said Mr. Key, who worked in the mines from 1959 through 1963 and, like other mine workers, said he was never warned of the health consequences of exposure to uranium.
``I wonder how well those guys in Washington would do, see how they would like it, tied to a chain like I am 24 hours a day,'' Mr. Key said. ``I know I owe taxes this year. I'm just going to tell them to take it out of my i.o.u.''
Worried that he will not live long enough to receive a check because of his lung disease, Jack Beeson, 67, a former miner from Moab, Utah, said: ``We worked in those mines, waiting for our golden years. Well, now it's our golden years, and it's done nothing but cost us gold. This is no way to live. I felt I was doing the government a service. Now, I feel they're doing me a disservice.''
To many of the former miners who extracted uranium from hundreds of mines in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, the i.o.u.'s are insulting. From the 1940's through 1971, when mining for the nuclear weapons program ended, they regarded themselves as patriots, equal to servicemen. The relatively high wages paid by the mines were a lure, but so was the idea that uranium mining was crucial to national security.
Lorna Harvey's father, Loren Wilcox, was a cattle rancher. But he disliked Russia so much, Ms. Harvey said, that he took a mining job in 1954 and worked it for two and a half years.
``He felt we needed to protect ourselves,'' she said. Mr. Wilcox died of lung cancer in 1969 at 62.
Most workers had no idea that the yellow ore they were mining could destroy their health. Wayne Hill, 69, who has lung cancer, said a tin cup hung at the entrance to one mine for miners and drivers to drink water dripping out of the rocks. ``It was cool, clear water,'' he said. ``I didn't know it was going to make me light up.''
So little was known or revealed about the health consequences of uranium exposure that workers used uranium dust for fertilizer and uranium rocks for doorstops. ``My mother made earrings out of it,'' Ms. Harvey said.
With deaths and illnesses mounting and ample scientific evidence to show that uranium exposure was a cause, Congress passed legislation to compensate the miners in 1990. And for nearly 10 years, the Justice Department's annual requests for financing the program were met. To date, $268.7 million has been paid to 3,595 people. About the same number were denied because they lacked proper medical records or copies of company logs that showed how long they had worked in the mines.
The financial crunch arose when Mr. Clinton expanded the program at a time Congress appropriated only $10.8 million to cover existing claims, an amount that was exhausted quickly. Efforts by Mr. Domenici and others to cover the shortfall, as well as the new applicants, failed.
Some of the i.o.u. holders have lost hope of seeing the money. Darlene Pagel's husband, Duane, died of pulmonary fibrosis in 1986 at 55. Since then, Ms. Pagel said, she has worked two jobs to pay off his medical bills, which still amount to $26,922.
``He didn't know uranium could kill him,'' she said. ``If he'd have known he would have been dead at 55, he never would have taken the job.''
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