CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
Oct. 9, 2004
RONALD W. REAGAN NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005-CONFERENCE REPORT
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I would like to congratulate the conferees on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, for reforming the Energy Employee's Occupational Illness Act, EEOICPA, and ensuring that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, RECA, receives additional mandatory funding to pay the workers whose claims were originally subject to additional appropriations.
I view the reform of EEOICPA's subtitle D as particularly significant. From November 2003 through March 2004, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee held three hearings on this program. These hearings determined that the current program's subtitle D was not paying injured atomic workers. Subtitle D relied on the DOE to determine causation with a subsequent referral to State compensation systems. Typically these State compensations not only add add additional delay to the process but they are adversarial in nature because insurers can contest the claim against a sick and dying worker. As a result of these three Senate hearings, there was a bipartisan effort by 20 Senators to move subtitle D from the Department of Energy to the Department of Labor, where EEOICPA's subtitle B is administered. The Department of Labor specializes in providing worker compensation, so it only seems reasonable to consolidate the program there. Originally, the Senate's proposed reform of subtitle D required the Department of Labor to adjudicate each claim according to the workers' respective State compensation standard. This compensation procedure, while insuring that the original intent of EEOICPA remained intact, was determined by the conferees to be too hard to administer. In my view, and it was stated in the March 2004 hearing, the proper course of action to pay these sick workers was to use a uniform standard funded from a mandatory account similar to subtitle B.
The conference report's version of EEOICPA's subtitle D takes the right approach. Instead of a compensation scheme tied to each State as in the Senate proposal, the conference report chooses a uniform payment schedule according to disability and lost wages, for both living and deceased persons. Most importantly, subtitle D is funded out of the subtitle B mandatory account so it does not end up like the RECA program in lacking the necessary compensation funds once a positive determination is made. I am also pleased that the language contains the ombudsman provision, even though it is only authorized for three years. The ombudsman will report to Congress on the transition from the Department of Energy to the Department of Labor, and whether the intent of the reform language is adhered to, which is the quick compensation of sick workers.
I would like to thank the many Senate staffers listed below who held together as a group for the past seven months; their names are found at the end of this statement. Through this strong bipartisan effort, more was accomplished than any by any single member. I hope this effort sets a tone for other endeavors that we pursue in Congress.
Elizabeth Bellville, Office of Senator DeWine;
Catherine Boland, Office of Senator Voinovich;
David Cherington, Senate Armed Services Committee;
Doug Clapp, Office of Senator Murray;
Madelyn Creedon, Senate Armed Services Committee;
Angela Becker-Dippman, Office of Senator Cantwell;
Ken Ende, Office of Senator Murkowski;
Jonathan Epstein, Office of Senator Bingaman;
Holly Fechner, Health Education and Labor Committee;
Tom Horgan, Health Education and Labor Committee;
Kurt Kovarik, Office of Senator Grassley;
Kate Kimpan, Office of Senator Bunning;
Pete Lyons, Energy and Natural Resources Committee;
Sara Mills, Office of Senator Reid;
Beth Stein, Office of Senator Harkin;
Kristine Svinicki, Office of Senator Craig;
Katie Swaney, Office of Senator Talent;
Kim Taylor, Office of Senator Bunning;
Jason Unger, Office of Senator Reid;
Dan Utech, Office of Senator Clinton;
Tim Valentine, Office of Senator Alexander;
Karina Waller, Office of Senator Stevens;
Jenny Wing, Office of Senator Harkin;
Portia Wu, Health Education and Labor Committee.
Again, my thanks to the Chairman and Ranking members of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees for ensuring that these innocent atomic workers, who helped win the cold war, clean up its former nuclear sites, and continue to maintain our nuclear deterrent, are adequately compensated for the injuries they sustained working at DOE's nuclear facilities.