United States Department of the Interior
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON, DC 20240
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Honorable Thomas P. O'Neill
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
20515
Dear Mr.
Speaker:
The Secretary of the Interior is required by section 102 of
Public Law 9€-2C05 to subrit to the Congress by January 1,
19€1,
a plan for health care and related programs for people of the
Marshall Islands.
To afford to the new Administration as much
flexibility as possible, we are submitting at this time only a
preliminary report, with the expectation that a final plan will
be submitted to you sometime after the Inauguration.
I should like to set forth below certain of the key provisions
of the statute,
a statement of some of the areas in which the
Statute presents problems of construction, information concern-
ing the Interior Department's efforts to implement the statute,
and brief summaries of the proposals received from our contractors
to help us implement section 102.
At this time the Department
neither endorses nor rejects the conclusions contained in the
proposals.
The statute
Section 102 of Public Law 96-205 contains the following
provisions relevant to our current undertaking:
-- The plan required of the Secretary of the Interior
results from the United States' nuclear weapons testing prograr.
conducted in the Marshall Islands during the period 1946 to 1956.
-- The beneficiaries of the plan are to be “the people of
the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utirik and...the
people of such other atolls as may be found to be or to have been
exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program”.
-- The plan is to consist of "a program of medical care ané
treatment and environmental research and monitoring for any
injury, illness, or condition which may be the result directly or
indirectly of such nuclear weapons testing program".
The plan is
to include (1) "an integrated, comprehensive health care prograr.
including primary, secondary, and tertiary care with special
emphasis upon the biological effects of ionizing radiation", (2)
an environmental monitoring,
gram, and
research,
and dose assessment pro-
(3) an education and information program.