SENSE OF CONGRESS ON RESOURCE CENTER FOR ENERGY EMPLOYEES UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEE OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM IN WESTERN NEW YORK AND WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA REGION.

SEC. 3170. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON RESOURCE CENTER FOR ENERGY EMPLOYEES UNDER ENERGY EMPLOYEE OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM IN WESTERN NEW YORK AND WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA REGION.(a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings:(1) New York has 36 current or former Department of Energy facilities involved in nuclear weapons production-related activities statewide, mostly atomic weapons employer facilities, and 14 such facilities in western New York. Despite having one of the greatest concentrations of such facilities in the United States, western New York, and abutting areas of Pennsylvania, continue to be severely underserved by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (title XXXVI of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense 118 STAT. 2192 Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106–398); 42 U.S.C. 7384 et seq.). (2) The establishment of a permanent resource center in western New York would represent a substantial step toward improving services under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program for energy employees in this region.(3) The number of claims submitted to the Department under subtitle B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 from the western New York region, including western Pennsylvania, exceeds the number of such claims filed at resource centers in Hanford, Washington, Portsmouth, Ohio, Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Nevada Test Site, Nevada, the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Colorado, the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho, and the Amchitka Test Site, Alaska. (4) Energy employees in the western New York region, including western Pennsylvania, deserve assistance under subtitle B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 commensurate with the assistance provided energy employees at other locations in the United States. (b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Labor should—(1) review the availability of assistance under subtitle B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 for energy employees in the western New York region, including western Pennsylvania; and (2) recommend a location in that region for a resource center to provide such assistance to such energy employees.