Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Enewetak Atoll Cleanup Veterans Registry and Study Act of 2016. I am pleased to be joined by my colleague from Maine, Senator King, in this initiative. Our bill would address an issue important to veterans, including many in Maine, who participated in the Enewetak Atoll radiation cleanup missions from 1977 to 1980. These veterans may now be suffering from adverse health conditions due to exposure to radiation during these missions. At the end of World War II, Enewetak Atoll came under the control of the United States, which used it to test nuclear bombs. From 1948 to 1958, Enewetak Atoll was the site of 43 U.S. nuclear tests. The combined federal effort to clean up the resulting radioactive waste cost about $100 million over three years and required an on-atoll task force numbering almost 1,000 people. The veterans who served on the cleanup task force did not ask to be sent to Enewetak Atoll. Like good servicemembers, they received their orders and went to work serving the U.S. government by cleaning up radioactive waste over a 3-year period. I have heard from several Enewetak Atoll veterans who have now developed cancers, and they have expressed their concerns that these cancers may be rooted in their service cleaning up nuclear material. To address this troubling issue, our bill would help identify and bring together the shared experiences of those who served as a part of the Enewetak Atoll cleanup.…”