U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL News:

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District introduced legislation in the House of Representatives today that expands compensation for those exposed to radiation while working in uranium mines or living downwind from atomic weapons tests. 

Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by a bipartisan coalition of Senators, including New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich.

Among the provisions in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Amendments of 2015 are much needed changes that would build upon previous RECA legislation by further widening qualifications for compensation for radiation exposure; qualifying post 1971 uranium workers for compensation; and expanding the downwind exposure area to include Colorado, Idaho, Montana and New Mexico, as well as any county in Arizona, Nevada or Utah, which has been shown to be impacted by downwind contamination.

“Until this gets done – compensating and recognizing the miners, workers, downwinders and all who are suffering from the impacts of uranium mining and nuclear testing during the Cold War – we will continue to push this legislation forward,” Luján said. “I will continue my efforts to educate my colleagues in the House on the critical need to compensate all those who played a key role in our national security during the Cold War and have suffered as a result of their efforts.”

Specifically, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2015 will:

• Extend compensation to employees of mines and mills employed after Dec. 31, 1971. These are individuals who began working in uranium mines and mills after the U.S. stopped purchasing uranium, but failed to implement and enforce adequate uranium mining safety standards. Many of these workers have the same illnesses as pre-1971 workers who currently qualify for RECA compensation.

• Add core drillers to the list of compensable employees, which currently only includes miners, millers and ore transporters.

• Add renal cancer, or any other chronic renal disease, to the list of compensable diseases for employees of mines and mills. Currently, millers and transporters are covered for kidney disease, but miners are not.

• Allow claimants to combine work histories to meet the requirement of the legislation. For example, individuals who worked half a year in a mill and half a year in a mine would be eligible for compensation. Currently, the Department of Justice makes some exceptions for this, but the policy is not codified in law.

• Make all claimants available for an equal amount of compensation, specifically $150,000, regardless of whether they are millers, miners, ore transporters, onsite employees, or downwinders.

• Make all claimants eligible for medical benefits. Currently, only miners, millers and ore transporters can claim medical benefits through the medical expense compensation program.

• Recognize radiation exposure from the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, as well as tests in the Pacific Ocean.

• Expand the downwind areas to include all of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Utah for the Nevada Test Site; New Mexico for the Trinity Test Site; and Guam for the Pacific tests.

• Allow the use of affidavits to substantiate employment history, presence in affected area, and work at a test site. Current legislation only allows miners to use affidavits.

• Return all attorney fees to a cap of 10 percent of the amount of the RECA claim, as was mandated in the original 1990 RECA legislation.

• Authorize $3 million for five years for epidemiological research on the impacts of uranium development on communities and families of uranium workers. The funds would be allocated to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to award grants to universities and non-profits to carry out the research.

• Allow miners, millers, core drillers, and ore transporters to file a Special Exposure Cohort petition within the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). Other DOE workers are currently allowed to file such petitions for compensation when claims are denied and there is not enough information for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to do dose reconstruction to determine the impacts of exposure.

To meet its responsibility to those Americans who sacrificed so much for our national security, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) on Oct. 5, 1990 and later broadened the scope of the Act’s coverage on July 10, 2000. The current law offers compensation to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases following their exposure to radiation released during above-ground atmospheric nuclear weapons tests or following their occupational exposure to radiation while employed in the uranium industry. However, there are many additional individuals who are sick or dying from radiation exposure and are unable to receive the compensation they deserve.