Tom Harkin: “my colleague, Senator Bond from Missouri, and I are on the floor today to basically work with the committee to do the…”

“my colleague, Senator Bond from Missouri, and I are on the floor today to basically work with the committee to do the right thing. We are here to simply add former atomic workers, nuclear workers, who worked in our ammunition plants in Missouri and Iowa, to a group of workers who are already eligible for special compensation. This category is already in effect for workers from Kentucky, Ohio, Alaska, and Tennessee. But since the original legislation was passed in 2000, we have learned a great deal more about the facilities in Iowa and Missouri which makes it necessary to include these workers as well. I spoke at length on this issue yesterday on the floor. I will not go over those again. I want to make a couple of brief points today. In Iowa, between 1947 and 1975, almost 4,000 people were employed handling nuclear weapons. So great was the secrecy that 5 and a half years later we still don't know exactly to what the workers were exposed.”