State & Local Issues

It's disgusting and shameful. Thousands of workers faithfully showed up every day at the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant for more than 50 years. During the Cold War, they were on the front line as we matched nuclear muscle with the communists. They can rightfully claim their place in history as the patriots who won that war without a shot being fired. Millions live in freedom because of the job they did and the risk they took working with some of the most toxic substances on earth. Many of them have died of cancers connected to the exposures they endured, more are battling disease today, and countless more wait and wonder if they will be next. Yet, on June 12, the Federal Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) denied their petition requesting the federal government accept responsibility and provide coverage for their job related suffering.

Not surprisingly, the methodology and science involved in performing the work at Rocky Flats evolved over the plant's five decade history. The workers were often responsible for developing better, safer techniques and through their health problems, scientists learned more about exposure to radioactive materials. Records of exposure, especially the amount (dose) of radiation, were spotty or missing for many workers particularly in the early years.

During my time in Congress, I worked to get these Cold War patriots their just due. In 2005 I, along with my Democratic colleague Mark Udall, introduced legislation passed by Congress that allowed NIOSH tremendous flexibility in granting healthcare benefits to these workers. In situations where records were unclear or exact dose exposure could not be reconstructed, workers could be awarded Special Exposure Cohort status. Further, NIOSH was instructed to give workers who petitioned for coverage a timely (180 days or less) answer to their request.

Both of Colorado's Senators and every member of the House delegation, including myself and former Congressman Joel Hefley, have publicly supported the workers petition, yet on June 12 they were denied in a 6-4 vote.

It is indisputable that members of the Steelworkers Union at Rocky Flats were exposed to radiation that has been determined to cause as many as 22 different cancers. A third of the workers sampled had missing records. One of every ten died while waiting for their claim to NIOSH to be processed. Still, the Steelworker had to wait an unbelievable 847 days - 27 months - for an answer when the law requires a maximum 180 days, only to be rejected. 

On June 12, I testified on behalf of the petitioners (audio here), and I have written President Bush asking for his intervention. Since the vote against the workers, I have pledged to continue to work with them to ultimately get them justice.

What has happened to these deserving people is why so many lose faith in government. Endless bureaucratic process, changing rules, absence of common-sense, and grasping for ways to avoid just doing the right thing makes cynics and unbelievers out of the most faithful citizens.  The workers at Rocky Flats accomplished a mission that was deemed impossible by many in winning the Cold War with the Soviets.

With sad irony, the EPA certified the site as cleaned-up and ready to transfer to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife. These workers completed that cleanup under budget, decades earlier than most believed possible, serving as a model to the world for contaminated site reclamation. It has been returned back to the Colorado landscape as a Wildlife Preserve, a task deemed unimaginable by many.

They did everything asked of them – and more. They took enormous personal risk, and some are – or have – suffered the effects of that risk, and others undoubtedly will in the future. It is disgraceful and shameful that the government has not stepped up and taken care of them. America has always had a policy of not abandoning our soldiers on the battlefield – yet our government has walked away from these Cold War warriors.