-3— The medical care to be provided is "comprehensive" care, including
primary, secondary, and tertiary care, and the-medical—eere—tebe-provided is
accordingly not sambe limited to injuries, illnesses, or conditions resulting
from the nuclear weapons testing program.
~- With respect to the four atolls named in the statute, the medical
care and other program benefits to be provided are not to be limited to
the "people" of those atolls, wherever they may now reside in the Marshall
Islands.
There is dispute among the interested parties, however, as to the
islands and atolls covered by the statute.
No doubt exists as to the
application of the statute to the people of the four atolls explicitly named -Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utirik.
At least one party contends, however,
that the statute and the foreseen program of comprehensive medical care must
extend to all of the people of the Marshall Islands, @hée on the ground that
at least some }
all islands and atolls in the Marshall Islands have received radioactive
as a result of the nuclear testing program, and thatac}
Ltherefore been "exposed"}
fallout) -aedmedi the people of those islands and atolls have/thwe—beea
tthaty
eticemed to some extent by the-nveleer-veapone—toctiag/progran.
The
So extensive a program would » in our view,
require further legislation,
the current residents of those atolls, but are instead to be provided to
Department of the Interior believes that the Congress intended to provide
a program to benefit more than the people of the four named atolls, but that
[the entire Marshallese people,
it did not intend that the program comprehend/élt—aSthe-Marerads .
is
That is,
we believe that the soundest reading of the statute itadieeses that the
{_wherever they may now reside,}
program is to apply to the people of the four named atolls,/plus the people
of such other atolis as were déeectiy affected by the weapons testin
ro rams, in
some manner significantly greater than were people in other parts of the worl & pro
The question then arises as to how “such other atolls” are to be
identified.
A procedure that could be utilized would be a rule-making under