NEW MEXICO (KRQE) New Mexicans exposed to nuclear radiation are calling out federal lawmakers for a failure to act. A decades-old victim compensation program will expire Monday while a bill to expand to those payments has once again been stalled in the House. New Mexico Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez said, “Speaker Johnson, let us vote.”
Lawmakers and advocates criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson for his election to allow the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to expire. “While they play politics, we’re gathering up our resources to pay for somebody to have cancer treatment,” said Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium.
Story continues below
Events: What’s happening around New Mexico June 7-13
Community: New Mexican musician hospitalized in Rome
Data: New Mexico’s population will decline after 2035, experts predicts
Crime: Thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise recovered after raid at Santa Fe home
For the last year, lawmakers have been advocating for an extension of RECA, which expires on June 10. A bill to continue and expand the program has been waiting for a House vote since March.
It would, in part, allow downwinders exposed to the 1945 Trinity Nuclear Test to get compensated for medical expenses. “I am the fourth generation in my family to have cancer since 1945 and unfortunately now I have a 24-year-old niece who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 23 and she’s the fifth generation,” said Cordova.
Cordova has supported the expansion for years advocating for downwinders like herself. “We’ve had bills introduced for 14 years now folks. We can’t wait any longer. And we’ve never gotten closer than we are right now,” said Cordova.
But now, the House is letting the compensation act expire for the first time in over 30 years.
“They know that radiation exposure is not discerning. It has affected the young the old, the male, the female, the black, the white, and the Republican and the Democrat alike,” said Cordova.
While there’s no clear end to the funding impasse right now, advocates said they’re not letting up. “We are never going to give up, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Cordova.
The earliest the House could vote on the stalled bill is next Tuesday, June 11. For now, the feds will continue to accept applications for compensation that are postmarked through Monday.
