Several members of the New Mexico congressional delegation used an opinion column in a state newspaper to continue calling for extending and expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
A bill to do exactly that has passed the Senate but awaits action in the House of Representatives.
“The version of [the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act] RECA passed in 1990, which covered communities in Utah and Nevada, irresponsibly left out New Mexicans who suffered from the very first nuclear explosion,” according to the July 9 op-ed column that appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper and on the website of Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.).
Other signers of the column are Sen. Martin Heinrich and U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez, all Democrats. The letter said, however, there is “strong bipartisan support” for expansion of RECA.
Also on July 9, Luján used a Senate Budget Committee hearing to get a commitment from Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel to provide cost estimates on a state-by-state basis. “A challenge for us is to do state-by-state costs … we are set up to do federal costs,” Swagel said in a video of the exchange.
The original RECA program extends benefits only to uranium miners, millers, and transporters who worked until 1972, according to the lawmakers’ column.
But proposed legislation “would extend benefits to those who worked after 1972, many of whom have developed cancer as a result of radiation exposure,” according to the. The RECA extension bill, the Senate passed in March was sponsored. by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
The bill would have prevented the program from lapsing last month and would have added several states including New Mexico and Missouri. Supporters have urged Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to hold a vote on legislation in the House of Representatives. The measure would add protection for states not included in the 1990 version of the bill.
As things stand now, only claims postmarked on and before June 10, 2024, will be filed and adjudicated, according to the Department of Justice.