Senators reintroduce ‘downwinder’ bill

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Four senators representing Idaho and Montana introduced new legislation Thursday to amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include all of Idaho and Montana as “downwind” states.

Representatives of the Navajo Nation will travel to Washington July 7 also to lobby for geographic changes and an expansion of the list of compensable diseases and benefits for uranium workers covered under RECA.

Navajo wants to see the list of eligible downwind counties expanded to include San Juan and McKinley counties in New Mexico and Montezuma County, Colo.

“It’s like there was a curtain here when Nevada Test Site was detonating its bombs,” said Phil Harrison, longtime advocate for Navajo uranium victims. That line stops at the Utah and Arizona borders.

At present, downwinders are compensated only in parts of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, although studies show Idaho and Montana received some of the highest doses of radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear testing at Nevada Test Site during the 1950s and 1960s.

Navajo also has recommended that people who were exposed to radiation through atomic testing at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico be eligible for RECA compensation. At present, they are excluded.

Under the bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday, S. 1342, downwind victims in Idaho and Montana would be compensated if they contracted cancer or other specified compensable diseases following the testing.

“The victims of this testing have waited years for just compensation and the cruel irony is that the federal government has postponed this action for so long that many aren’t living to see this bill passed,” Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo said.

This is the third time we have introduced this legislation. It is of national importance and we hope we can expand the scope of the program because there are literally victims throughout the country.”

Durango attorney Keith Killian, lobbyist for the Navajo Nation, outlined a dozen or so changes the Nation would like to see during a trip to Washington in November 2007. “The fact of the matter is that every month that goes by, every week that goes by, eligible members are dying. We’re quite concerned about the passage of time,” he said recently.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch said research shows that radioactive elements impacted citizens in Idaho at the time of nuclear testing. “They deserve help for the health effects they have suffered. We must not delay any longer in getting this done.”

Montana’s Sen. Max Baucus said they need to make sure those affected by nuclear tests are taken care of. “This legislation is about stepping up and doing what’s right for folks in Montana and Idaho, just like we’ve been doing for the other states already covered by RECA,” he said.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, a member of Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “it makes common sense that folks who were exposed to dangerous substances due to the actions of the federal government deserve compensation for any suffering caused by that exposure.

This bill is about doing right by Montanans and folks in other states who were left out of the original law that was based on geography rather than medical science.”

Other key changes Navajo hopes to see is coverage for post-1971 uranium victims, an expansion of categories to include others exposed through uranium mining, such as core drillers, and medical benefits for downwinders.

“They were excluded from medical care,” Killian said.

“Regardless of how you got your radiation cancer, you ought to be eligible to receive medical benefits.”