U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

March 9, 2005

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Press Secretary

                        202-228-3630

Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary

                        303-455-7600

 

SENATOR SALAZAR LEADS SENATE FIGHT ON BEHALF OF SICK ROCKY FLATS EMPLOYEES

 

WASHINGTON, DC – United States Senator Ken Salazar today introduced critical legislation to extend Special Exposure Cohort status to workers employed by the Department of Energy or its contractors at Rocky Flats. As a result of this designation, a Rocky Flats worker suffering from one of the 22 listed cancers would be eligible to receive benefits despite the inadequate records maintained by the Department of Energy and its contractors or other problems.

“Through five decades, men and women worked on the front lines of the cold war producing plutonium at Rocky Flats,” said Salazar. “We owe them this classification if they are suffering from illnesses caused by exposure while ensuring our national security. I look forward to bi-partisan support.”

Senator Salazar also co-signed a March 8, 2005 letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt regarding Special Exposure Cohort Status for some former Rocky Flats employees. In the letter, Senator Salazar joined Senator Wayne Allard, Congressmen Mark Udall and Bob Beauprez in calling for HHS to give a full and fair consideration to a petition filed by the Rocky Flats United Steelworkers of America, Local 8031. The Steelworkers petition would allow for Special Exposure Cohort recognition for a certain identified class of workers at Rocky Flats.

Under the 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), employees from a limited number of nuclear facilities and test sites were designated for Special Exposure Cohort classification, making them eligible for a lump sum payment of $150,000 and medical coverage to DOE contract workers who were sickened as a result of beryllium or radiation exposure.

Senator Salazar’s bill is a companion bill to H.R. 428, “The Rocky Flats Special Exposure Cohort Act” currently sponsored by Congressmen Mark Udall and Bob Beauprez in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 


 

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