Standing Up for Downwinders Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (Reca)

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in continued support of the reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). I first learned about RECA through my constituents over 10 years ago, and since then I have been determined to get justice for the victims of reckless federal government policies that injured thousands.

From 1945 to 1962, the United States government, through its military, conducted nearly 200 atmospheric weapons development tests as part of our nation's Cold War security strategy during an era when other nations were also engaged in nuclear weapons testing and proliferation. These tests exposed millions of innocent Americans to potentially cancer-causing ionized radiation from nuclear fallout. It is hard to believe today, but for over a decade the military was blasting tons of radioactive material into our skies. And this was the military that was supposed to protect Americans.

One report, from the University of Kansas, explained that ``enormous clouds, pinkish-gray in color, rose up into the air, spreading out and reaching over nearby communities. At the time, not much information about these tests was available to the public, but the radioactive dust that fell from the clouds--gathering on people's homes, their cars, their clothes lines, and their vegetable gardens--caused serious and harmful long-term medical issues.''

The report further documents just one person's experience with the radiation delivered over their farm in Utah:

``Not till the 1960s were we really aware of the danger of those fallout materials. Mom and Dad were told that there was nothing to worry about, it wasn't going to harm anybody. And then people started getting sick! And passing away! And thyroid cancer was a big one, it was huge . . . and then our family lost that sweet little baby. Dad still thinks that it's the milk Mom drank, and then Mom later on got colon cancer, and none of that has ever shown up in her family. There's no sign of colon cancer anywhere in the family. And Mom died with colon cancer, and Dad and Warren were plagued with skin cancer, and I've had a bit of skin cancer myself. It's always a worry because, the people realized that the government were lying to them! Literally lying to them. And it just was sad, it was a sad situation.''

When the injuries were discovered, Congress subsequently provided an apology on behalf of the nation and passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, or RECA, to establish a trust fund for partial restitution to individuals--commonly referred to as ``Downwinders''--who have contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases that can be directly attributed to the radiation exposure from the nuclear weapons testing.

The spread of radioactive material was not limited to Arizona, Utah and Nevada. It went essentially nationwide. The University of Kansas states, ``While the areas surrounding test sites in the southwestern states are some of the most heavily affected, air currents carried the radioactive particles all over the country, and even beyond the borders of the U.S.'' This information came from the National Cancer Institute.

RECA was and is an effort to provide some very minimal compensation for the radiation victims. RECA is all we have now, even though it was too little and too late for many.

I have long led legislation that would reauthorize RECA and expand eligibility for Downwinders compensation by including qualified individuals who were exposed in any part of Clark County, Nevada, or Mohave County, Arizona--immediately downwind jurisdictions from the testing site that have been excluded from compensation for decades due to a drafting error. The exclusion of my constituents in Mohave County, Arizona is an egregious injustice. It's clear that the original legislative intent was to include all of Mohave County and that the partial exclusion is a drafting error in the statutory text: In 1990, RECA was passed with Mohave County included. Then in 2000, S. 1515 amended RECA expanding qualification to additional counties. The expansion of compensation to additional counties did not seek to exclude any jurisdiction. It only sought to ``increase'' Downwinders compensation to additional counties. In amending the Act, the House of Representatives stated in the House Report that Congress's goal in amending the Act was to ``increase'' the existing Downwinder areas to ``include'' additional areas. The House report makes clear that the drafters sought to increase the area that had been covered under the prior version and to add new counties. In reality, Congress added new counties to the affected area but also mistakenly eliminated a large portion of Mohave County. In short, legal malpractice in drafting the statute cut out more than half of Mohave County, one of the most impacted counties in the U.S.

The statutory text is at odds with the stated goals of House Report 106-697 which states ``S. 1515 would increase the Downwinder ``affected area'' to include . . . the counties of Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, and Gila in Arizona.'' It says nothing about excluding any county. This drafting error has had a direct impact on people's health and safety and has cost many of my constituents the compensation they deserve. I call for immediate rectification of RECA to clarify that the original text and later amendments never sought to exclude my constituents in Mohave County, Arizona from qualifying for Downwinders compensation.

But Madam Speaker, there is more. As the maps demonstrate, radioactive fallout was documented across the United States. It is not just Mohave County that should be included under RECA, but all contiguous 48 states. There is evidence of fallout in every state. Only the furthest west areas, such as L.A. escaped radiation. But Eastern California was exposed. For that reason, I am urging an amendment to RECA as we reauthorize it: RECA should allow claims from any person who lived in a documented radiation zone during the test years that later developed a cancer related to radiation exposure.

The government sacrificed its people to test the bombs. Moralists can argue if that was the right thing to do at the time. But today, 70 years later, the moral debate is irrelevant. The people have been hurt. Families devasted. They were unwittingly sacrificed as foot soldiers in a war they did not sign up for. At a minimum, the federal government today has the moral obligation to recognize their sacrifice and compensate the victims.

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