Widow watches as NTS amendment accepted

Benjamin Grove

Friday, June 9, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Henderson resident Dorothy Clayton was on Capitol Hill Thursday to watch as the Senate accepted an amendment that would compensate former and current Nevada Test Site laborers made ill by their work.

Clayton's husband, Glenn, died a year ago after battling five cancers. He had led crews into the tunnels at the Test Site after underground nuclear bomb blasts.

A free-standing bill has been introduced in Congress offering ill workers or their families up to $200,000. The plan reverses a Department of Energy practice of rejecting health claims.

But the Senate has not yet approved that bill and a similar bill is stalled in the House.

So Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who visited Clayton in her home last week, along with Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and 10 other senators introduced the legislation as an amendment to a Defense Department spending bill now being debated. The Senate accepted the amendment, but has not voted to approve the overall bill.

Clayton spent this week in Washington meeting with Senate staffers, encouraging support for the legislation. She posed for photos with Reid in his Capitol Hill office. Reid on Wednesday mentioned her in a speech on the Senate floor.

"It's been very gratifying seeing all the positive opinions of the senators," Clayton said. "They all seem committed to workers who were exposed to radiation. I'm very hopeful."