The Senate wants to expand RECA. Downwinders urge Utahns in the House to do the same • Idaho Capital Sun

Utah’s two U.S. senators, Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, voted against the bill. In the letter sent Thursday, advocates called their votes “shameful.”

“We also ask that you convey your position of support to House Speaker Mike Johnson and House leaders. “We know that you are well aware of the issues surrounding RECA, as this is the third letter we have sent to the Utah delegation, so far with little to no response,” the letter reads.

Hawley’s bill, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Actwould increase compensation downwind workers could receive, expand eligibility for certain uranium workers, and expand the current definition of “affected area” to include all of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Guam .

It would also cover parts of the Hawley district near St. Louis, where the stream water was contaminated by radiation during the development of nuclear weapons.

Hawley’s bill would significantly expand RECA, a program that advocates and advocates said was already too limited before it expired. ​​In Utah, the program covered residents living in 10 counties (Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne) for two consecutive years from 1951 to 1958, or during the summer of 1962.

Also eligible were people who worked in uranium mines, mills or hauling ore in Utah from 1942 to 1971.

Wind supporters point to research that suggests the fallout from nuclear testing affected the entire Beehive State, including recent findings from the University of Utah who discovered that all of Utah was covered in iodine-131, a radioactive material. Other studies show that the fallout traveled far beyond Utah’s borders, with radiation detected as far away as Vermont, carried by wind and weather patterns, similar to how smoke from wildfires in Oregon and Washington often ends up in the Salt Lake Valley.

“Since there is no completely safe level of radiation exposure, here is a conclusion. Only a small fraction of victims have been compensated,” said Dr. Brian Moench, a cancer survivor who now serves as board president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

“Although Utah has been the hardest hit state, so far none of our congressional delegation has been willing to support this legislation,” Moench said. “The only country that has ever detonated nuclear bombs on American citizens is ours. That moral failure has been compounded by the indifference and cruelty of Utah’s congressional delegation that turned its back on its own constituents. “We all deserve better.”

Moench spoke Thursday during a call with other supporters and advocates, including Peterson. The problem is not going away: Dozens of people were never able to apply for RECA compensation, they said. Some lived outside of eligible counties. Others have trouble proving their residency. Some were diagnosed with cancer that was proven to be related to radiation, but were not covered by RECA.

Despite the program’s expiration, the United States Department of Justice was still examining more than 1,000 pending claims for compensation this summer, indicating that there is still demand for RECA payments.

“This is an ongoing problem. These health problems are increasing. It’s not something that has happened in the past, because the second or third generation of diseases is increasing,” Peterson said.

But the scope of Hawley’s expansion (particularly the addition of people in Hawley’s district) appears to be a sticking point for Rep. Celeste Maloy, who told reporters after their congressional debate on Oct. 14 that it would cost too much. and therefore not getting a vote in the House.

Despite the delay in compensation to downwinders, there are still more than 1,000 claims pending

“We cannot currently reauthorize it because of a Senate bill that links radiation exposure in Utah from mushroom clouds to a superfund site in Missouri. “That adds a lot of new costs,” he said. “So that bill will not come up for a vote in the House. The House will not accept a bill that has so many outstanding obligations.”

Maloy said he is negotiating with Hawley and other House lawmakers to find a path forward, calling the lapse in RECA “frustrating.”

“I have conveyed to them the urgency we have here in Utah,” he said. “They are owed compensation, but it is currently not authorized.”

Rep. Blake Moore had already thrown his support behind a bill initially introduced in 2023 by Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. The bill, called the Uranium Miners and Workers Act of 2023, extends RECA benefits to people who worked in a uranium mine or mill until 1978, but still excludes much of Utah.

Rep. John Curtis told Utah News Dispatch in May that he supports reauthorizing RECA without expanding it broadly, though he said he hopes to find a middle ground.

And Rep. Burgess Owens previously said that when RECA got its last two-year extension, the hope was that Congress would improve the law, working to expand who was covered.

“We just can’t go forward two years and get nothing out of it,” Owens said in May.

Utah News Bureau, Like the Idaho Capital Sun, it is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact editor McKenzie Romero with questions: (email protected). Follow the Utah news dispatch at Facebook and unknown.