Congressional proposals addressing hazardous waste exposure injuries have proliferated. These proposals are promoting wide discussion at conferences and studies by numerous trade associations, while having stimulated the creation of a Reagan Administration major interagency task force. The hazardous waste proposals are only part of the broader congressional debate concerning toxic exposure compensation, which includes the issues of asbestos, Agent Orange, and radiation injuries.

At the center of the hazardous waste compensation proposals is the Report of the "§301(e) Study Group"¹ under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund).² As an associate working with George C. Freeman Jr., a member of the Study Group, I was able to observe many of the Group's meetings. In part, the congressional proposals implement the recommendations of the Study Group, sometimes coincidentally and sometimes deliberately; sometimes they diverge in part, often deliberately I would think. I would like to compare the current proposals with the §301(e) Report recommendations. I do not propose to do a thorough comparison now, but instead to make some of the more interesting observations.³