-4the Administrative Procedure Act, by which the Secretary of the Interior
would establish the criteria to be used in determining which "other atolls”
have been affected by the testing program.
We would expect that those criteria
would be developed in the first instance by an inter-agency group, because many
Federal agencies are concerned with the matter of radiation standards.
The
procedure, therefore, for the designation of “other atolls” that would benefit
from the program required by Public Law 96-205 would necessarily be a protracted
one.
There would unquestionably be disputes among those interested as to what
SPlcswFic
the criteria should be, and whether atolls are or are not comprehended by
n
those criteria.
Implementation
Immediately following the President's approval of Public Law 96-205
on March 12, 1980, the Departments of the Interior and Energy undertook to
arrange the necessary funding to support the preparation of the plan.
As
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oF
soon as financial arrangements permitted us to do so, we invited the
~~
interested agencies eed{representatives of the warshalleSStoweet with
us to discuss Interior's proposed implementation of the statute.
With
Department of Energy funding, the Department of the Interior invited and
paid the travel costs of two representatives from each of the named atolls
and from the Government of the Marshall Isiands, the lawyer for each owek
group, if he was not Washington-based, and ¢naneletere, (WTEK FRETORS.
ABove - MENVTICWED
PE RSa.V5
Meetings with the fanageing were held in Washington on August 4 and
August 6, 1980.
The basis for the meetings was a Discussion Paper prepared
by the Interior Department and distributed to the interested parties in advance.
All were afforded an opportunity thereafter to submit written comments on
Interior's proposed procedure.