Orrin Hatch: “as the Senate is about to adopt H.R. 3061, the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations legislation for fiscal…”

“as the Senate is about to adopt H.R. 3061, the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2002, I would like to express my strong support and gratitude to Senator Harkin and Senator Specter for their willingness to include an amendment to H.R. 3061 on a matter that is very important to my home State of Utah. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, RECA, was signed into law in 1990 and has provided compensation to thousands of individuals, both workers and civilians, who were exposed to harmful radiation as a result of the government's nuclear testing decades ago. Some of these individuals worked in uranium mines; many drove the trucks which transported uranium ore; and many more happened to live downwind from a nuclear test site. The RECA law was amended last year by S. 1515, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2000. The legislation, which was signed into law last July, expanded the list of illnesses and classes of individuals who may be compensated under the RECA program. Recognizing that it is more effective, cost-beneficial, and indeed compassionate, to identify and treat at the earliest stages individuals who may have been exposed to harmful radiation, RECA 2000 also authorized a grant program for education, prevention, and early detection of radiogenic cancers and diseases.”