At a press conference in Washington, D.C. yesterday, federal lawmakers, tribal leaders, and residents of New Mexico made their case for the reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).
The measure, initially enacted in 1990, was designed to compensate uranium miners and residents living downwind of nuclear test sites, such as the 1945 Trinity Test in New Mexico.
That law had never compensated New Mexicans affected by exposure to radiation, but a reauthorization measure to include them and others passed in the Senate in March of this year by a vote of 69-31.
In June, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson decided to not bring it the floor, and the existing law expired.
Among the speakers at yesterday’s meeting was Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren.
“As Native Nations, when we were told—and when we signed our treaties—when they said, ‘Can you stand hand in hand with this country and make sure that when they’re threatened, can you stand with them and help them protect this country?’ And we said, ‘Yes.’
“And so our miners, back post-’71—all the way to the 1990s—they went into those mines not knowing what they were going to go into, but they knew that it was for national security, they knew that it was going to keep this country safe. And they went into those mines not knowing what was going to happen to their bodies.”
Residents of New Mexico and Arizona traveled 37 hours on a bus from Albuquerque to urge the speaker of the house to revive the bill. Some spoke about the diseases that affected their families across generations.
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico said that she believes if Johnson allowed the house to vote on RECA, her colleagues would overwhelmingly approve it.
