Downwinders in D.C. lobbying House to pass compensation for radiation exposure

May 14—More than 30 years after the Cold War ended, the legacy of nuclear testing and the uranium mined to fuel an arms race linger in a bleak half-life, most visibly in those who suffered severe health problems or lost loved ones exposed to radiation.

A coalition of radiation victims hopes to put a human face on the grim aftermath of a nuclear era fading into memory as they press congressional leaders to broaden compensation for exposure.

The group of downwinders, former uranium workers and bereaved family members is in the U.S. Capitol this week to urge Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call a vote on a bipartisan bill to expand who's eligible for compensation under federal law.

The bill, which passed the Senate in a 69-30 vote, has stalled in the House because Republican leaders think it's too costly.

It would enable New Mexico residents to receive federal compensation for exposure to radioactive fallout from nuclear tests — including the atomic bomb detonated at the Trinity Site in the Southern New Mexico desert during the Manhattan Project — and uranium mining after 1971.

Those who lost family members to radiation exposure would also qualify.

"We would like a little bit of help and acknowledgment from our government, so this doesn't keep happening to other people," said Mary Martinez White, a member of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium.

Only parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah now qualify for radiation exposure compensation. The bill would amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to cover the ineligible areas of those states as well as New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Guam.

The measure also adds areas of Missouri, Alaska, Kentucky and Tennessee, where residents were exposed to unsafe storage of nuclear waste. And it would renew RECA for another five years.

But the clock is ticking.

The program is set to expire June 7, and Congress will recess in the last week of May and return in early June.

"So this is our last opportunity before the sunset," Martinez White said. "We're working with members of Congress to bring Rep. Mike Johnson along."

The victim advocates come from affected areas throughout the country, including Utah, Missouri, Texas and Guam, as well as Navajo Nation and the Laguna and Acoma pueblos in New Mexico, she said.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, is sponsoring the bill along with Republican Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Hawley is seeking compensation for people who suffered severe health effects from the federal government's handling of uranium waste from processing plants in the St. Louis area.

Luján and Hawley decided to team up, believing a bipartisan effort had the best chance of succeeding. Their first bill drew 61 Senate votes last year, enough to advance it to the House, which declined to expand compensation.

They hope their latest bill, which garnered even stronger Republican backing, will have a better shot.

In New Mexico, many residents suffered radiation exposure not only from the atomic Trinity test and uranium mining but from fallout drifting from aboveground nuclear tests conducted in neighboring Nevada until the early 1960s.

Martinez White, 66, said she and her family are among the casualties.

Her mother and a sister died of cancer and her father died of leukemia, she said. Two sisters and a brother were more fortunate and survived cancer, she said.

A 40-year-old niece and an 18-year-old nephew had their thyroid glands removed because of cancer, she said, noting thyroid problems often are linked to radiation exposure. She also has extended family members who were beset with chronic and fatal illnesses.

"We can't disregard that harm; we can't disregard those lives," Martinez White said.

Some Republicans have balked at the proposed RECA expansion because it will cost $50 billion to $60 billion, a New Mexico member of Congress wrote in an email.

"Republicans have concerns about the price tag of the bill, but remember, the nuclear program incurred these costs already — including the unfair costs borne by the victims left out of the original RECA," Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández wrote. "The United States already paid the other bills, it just needs to pay these too."

Leger Fernández wrote she is inviting Johnson to join her and downwinders for a candlelight prayer vigil Wednesday so he can see the survivors' deep sorrow.

"In prayer, we hope he will see the faith we have that he will act," she wrote.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa consortium, who couldn't make the trip to D.C. this year, said the U.S. government has sunk trillions of dollars into nuclear weapons. In contrast, it has only spent about $3.6 billion compensating downwinders, she said.

In that context, the funding proposed in the bill is "a pittance," Cordova said.

Martinez White said her older cousin was working in a horse corral when the atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity Site. The blast blew out windows in his house and radioactive ash fell from the sky, covering him, his horses, his crops and his livestock.

He ran into the house to check on his family, not realizing he was bringing in toxic fallout that could sicken those close to him, she said.

But how could he know?

He was suddenly thrust into an alien reality with no precedent in human history.

Decades later, the government knows the harm the nuclear tests and the uranium work have inflicted on people, many of whom were patriots who served their country, she said. They must be compensated for fairness and as a lesson for those too young to remember how so many people were treated as collateral damage in those times.

"Going forward, we want to make sure that future generations don't disregard the lives of their own countrymen," she said.