George Voinovich: “I rise today to offer the Disaster Area Health and Environmental Monitoring Act, an amendment to the port security bill.…”

“I rise today to offer the Disaster Area Health and Environmental Monitoring Act, an amendment to the port security bill. This legislation is vital because it provides for the monitoring of the health and safety of individuals exposed to harmful substances as a result of a presidentially declared disaster. The Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent in the 108th Congress, but jurisdictional disagreements between committees in the House caused it not to be passed in the House. This issue first came to my attention during a series of Environment and Public Works Committee hearings in 2002 when we learned of the severe health problems facing thousands of workers and volunteers who heroically responded to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Perhaps some of my colleagues saw the ``60 Minutes'' segment this last Sunday that examined the problem in depth. I will never forget Joe Allbaugh, 3 months after September 11, before the committee. I asked him: What have you found out about what folks were exposed to, those who were first responders? And he said: I can't get the information. This bill would give the President the right to immediately go in and do the investigation to determine what these folks were exposed to. One of the things that we also did was discover that these first responders did not have the opportunity to have a screening. We were able to get $14 million set aside to do screening of first responders.…”