NM congressional delegation pressures House speaker to expand radiation compensation

Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Apr. 30—New Mexico's congressional delegation is putting pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to pass legislation that would expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA.

A competing Senate bill would extend the federal program without expanding it.

RECA is a federal program that provides compensation to people who were exposed to atomic radiation and developed certain types of cancer. The program benefits people from communities downwind of nuclear weapons testing and former uranium mine workers.

Unless Congress reauthorizes the program, RECA will sunset in June.

With a 69-30 vote in March, the Senate approved expanding and reauthorizing RECA. The expansion would benefit New Mexico downwinders and people who worked in uranium mines after 1971, who previously had not been included in the program. The expansion would also include new areas in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Guam.

But Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced a bill April 18 that would extend RECA without expanding it, a move criticized by activists who have worked to get the compensation program broadened.

"I would ask Senator Lee: how do we decide who deserves to be taken care of and who doesn't? Who gets to make these decisions? Why are people in certain zip codes considered more important than others?" Tina Cordova, executive director of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said in a statement.

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, authored a bipartisan letter with signatures of 30 senators and House members, including New Mexico's entire congressional delegation, asking Johnson to immediately pass the RECA expansion.

"The United States government exposed these Americans to radiation as part of our national security efforts through World War II and the Cold War," the letter states. "It is long past time that RECA is strengthened to give these Americans their recognition and compensation. Their livelihoods, often devastated by the long-term consequences of radiation exposure, depend on your leadership and commitment to rectifying past injustices."