"The Cold War Compensation Act" is the first federal workers' compensation program to be implemented in the last twenty years. The benefit program that will be offered to beryllium workers amounts to a federal bailout of a monopolistic private industry that has hidden behind the cloak of national security and has endangered the lives of workers, their household contacts and innocent bystanders.
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) (P.L.106-398) which was enacted into law in October, 2000 with strong bipartisan support. EEOICPA establishes a program to provide compensation to employers of the Department of Energy (DOE), its contractors and subcontractors, companies that provided beryllium to DOE, and atomic weapons employers.