2003
Dear Secretary Thompson
On October 30, 2000, the
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) was
signed into law (PL 106-386) as part of the FY 01 Defense Authorization
Act. Enactment of EEOICPA was a recognition by Congress and the President
that the federal government needed to act quickly to remedy long-standing
injustices against atomic weapons program workers. The findings of the
Act make the need for the Program abundantly clear, and include the
acknowledgment that:
"Since the inception of the nuclear weapons program and for several
decades afterwards, a large number of nuclear weapons workers at sites of the
Department of Energy and at sites of vendors who supplied the Cold War effort
were put at risk without their knowledge and consent for reasons that, documents
reveal, were driven by fears of adverse publicity, liability, and employee
demands for hazardous duty pay."
The Act further states that:
"the purpose of the compensation program is to provide for timely,
uniform, and adequate compensation of covered employees and, where applicable,
survivors of such employees, suffering from illnesses incurred by such
employees in the performance of duty for the Department of Energy and certain
of its contractors and subcontractors."
Yet nearly 38 months after EEOICPA was signed into law, the promise of
"timely, uniform and adequate compensation" has not been met.
We are very concerned about the delay in finalizing the "special exposure
cohort" petition procedures by the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) pursuant to 42 USC 7384(q).
In this regard, EEOICPA specifically provides:
"...members of a class of employees
at a Department of Energy facility, or at an atomic weapons employer facility,
may be treated as members of the Special Exposure Cohort for purposes of the
compensation program if the President, upon recommendation of the Advisory
Board on Radiation and Worker Health, determines that-
(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose
that the class received; and
(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have
endangered the health of members of the class."
The law further states that, "the President shall consider such petitions
pursuant to procedures established by the President."
Procedures for Designating Classes of Employees as Members of the Special
Exposure Cohort were first proposed through a rulemaking, and then subsequently
withdrawn in 2002 after uniform criticism. Revised rules were proposed in
March of 2003, but to date they have not been finalized. Workers
have and continue to be blocked from filing petitions to become members of the
Special Exposure Cohort because HHS has failed to meet its statutory
responsibility to issue these regulations.
Further delay is denying long-overdue justice for those who were intended to be
covered by the special exposure cohort provisions of the Act. After over three
years, HHS has had ample time to study this matter, and further delay is simply
inexcusable.
Therefore, we urge you to finalize the special exposure cohort rules and
publish them in the Federal Register immediately.
Our atomic weapons program workers, who are true Cold War heroes, helped
protect our nation and deserve nothing less. We thank you for your
prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton