(C) South Dakota Searchlight This story was originally published by South Dakota Searchlight and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Biden backs RECA legislation ahead of vote • South Dakota Searchlight [1] ['Danielle Prokop', 'More From Author', '- March'] Date: 2024-03-07 The White House endorsed legislation to extend funding and expand eligibility for people exposed to radiation by the federal government. The White House wrote of its support for a Senate bill extending the expiration date for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), in a policy memo released Wednesday. “The President believes we have a solemn obligation to address toxic exposure, especially among those who have been placed in harm’s way by the government’s actions,” the memo said. South Dakotans who worked in uranium mining, milling and transport decades ago in Edgemont are among those already eligible who could benefit from extended funding. As of 2023, people living in South Dakota had submitted 114 claims to RECA since its inception, resulting in 37 denials, 76 awards and one claim that was pending. Total payouts to South Dakotans from the fund stood at $6.56 million. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico, who has pressed to expand the program in various bills since 2009, expressed his hopes for the legislation. “I am glad that the Biden administration is putting its support behind strengthening RECA ahead of a Senate vote this week,” Luján wrote in a statement to Source New Mexico. “President Biden voiced his support for RECA last year in New Mexico, and I am hopeful that the Senate will pass this legislation with bipartisan support.” The bill is scheduled for a vote for today at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. It will need 60 votes. RECA basics RECA emerged in 1990 as an apology and acknowledgment of certain people exposed to radiation from uranium extraction and decades of above-ground nuclear tests in the American West and Pacific Islands. RECA is a unique fund, paying out lump-sums to qualified people diagnosed with certain cancers and other diseases if they lived and worked in designated places at specific times. The fund remains limited. It’s open to certain uranium miners, millers, transporters, people on-site during nuclear weapons tests and a handful of counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona where fallout fell. Many communities who were “downwind” of sites are excluded, including thousands of New Mexicans exposed at the first-ever nuclear blast at Trinity Test Site in 1945. South Dakota is included in eligibility as a uranium worker state, due to the uranium mining, milling and transport that occurred in the Edgemont area from roughly the 1950s to the 1970s. What’s in the bill? The bill — S. 3853 — was introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and has six co-sponsors. Those include New Mexico’s Luján and Sen. Martin Heinrich, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri. The bill opens downwinder eligibility to Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Guam, and expands to all of Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The law acknowledges Trinity test and Guam downwinders for the first time. It also extends coverage to uranium miners working until 1990 instead of cutting off coverage after 1971. The bill increases lump-sum compensation of downwinders and on-site participants to $100,000 (up from $50,000 and $75,000 respectively). If signed, the bill would allow for past claimants to request to receive the difference between past benefits and new ones. The bill expands the types of cancers covered and includes chronic kidney illness as a qualifying disease for uranium miners. Communities impacted by Manhattan Project waste and other nuclear waste in certain areas of Missouri, Alaska, Tennessee and Kentucky could receive compensation up to $25,000. The most recent legislation significantly cut the extension of the fund compared to an amendment struck from the defense bill last year. Instead of continuing the fund for another 19 years, the new legislation would extend the life of RECA until 2030 – for six years. Without extension, the fund is set to expire this year. The new legislation also directs the Government Accountability Office to submit a study to Congress on “unmet medical benefits coverage” for people exposed to radiation during federal atmospheric nuclear tests and make recommendations to provide additional coverage within one year of the bill’s passage. Tina Cordova, the founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium told Source New Mexico, the bill was cut down to “be more palatable” for Republican House members. Cordova, a cancer survivor, has pushed for recognition and justice for New Mexico Downwinders for nearly two decades. The consortium represents Southern New Mexicans and their descendants fighting for recognition from the federal government about cancers, deaths and other impacts of the detonation at the Trinity Site 78 years ago. “This is one of those amazing moments,” she said over intercom noise, as she boarded a flight to D.C., as Luján’s guest for the State of the Union address this Thursday. “But we still have to fight for the bill in the House,” she said. [END] --- [1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2024/03/07/biden-backs-reca-legislation-ahead-of-vote-today/ Published and (C) by South Dakota Searchlight Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/sdsearchlight/