The Honorable Wallace 0. Green Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Territorial & International Affairs August 8, 1980 Page Three and, more importantly, to comment on and be consulted with regard@ to any scope of work document or draft contract prepared in connection with Section 102 of Public Law 96205. Cn page three of the Discussion Paper, the Interior Department offers a preliminary reading of Section 102 which ralsesS several questions. The first issue iS raised by the use of the word “inhabitants” and its implication of a residency requirement. Section 102 quite carefully refers to "people" of atolls and it is the view of the Government of the Marshall Islands that Congress intended this term to be interpreted consistent with customary Marshallese concepts of relationship between people and atolls which do not require residency on an atoll by any particular individual. The most important issues raised hy the DOI prelimi- nary reading are the method for determining the atolls whose people are entitled to health care and the method for deter- Mining whether a particular injury, illness or condition of any person within the group of entitled people is eligible for treatment. The statute quite clearly sets up two tests for determining whether a particular person is entitled to treatment in a particular case: l. Is that person one of the Enewetak, or "people" of a. Bikini, Utirik; Rongelap or b. Any other atoll of the Marshall Islands exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons testing program; and 2. Is the injury, illness or condition for which treatment is being sought one which "may be the result directly or indirectly of such nuclear weapons testing program.” The preliminary reading of DOI seems to ignore these two Statutorily established standards and to unjustifiably discriminate between the injuries, illnesses or conditions which will be treated with regard to people of group 1(a) and group 1(b) above. As to the people of Bikini, above Enewetak,