Dozens of advocates are blanketing Capitol Hill this week to continue their push for Congress to revive a program that provided compensation for people suffering long-standing impacts from U.S. nuclear testing programs.
A group of Indigenous Americans and people suffering effects from the downwind effects of atomic testing are calling on Congress to revive the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, a 34-year-old federal program that expired on June 7.
Advocates say the program was a lifeline for individuals sickened by the U.S. atomic testing program, including so-called atomic veterans. A group of about 50 people boarded a bus in Albuquerque early this week to make a 30-hour drive to Washington, D.C., to make their case.
They are focused on convincing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to hold a vote on a bill that passed the Senate in March that would renew and expand the program. They are facing resistance from some House Republicans who have raised concerns about the program's cost.
"What's really difficult for us is that when Speaker Johnson blocks this bill, he's saying no to over 50 Republican House districts that would benefit from RECA," advocate Tina Cordova told NPR. "They make it out to be this issue of money ... while we've been paying for it with our lives."
RECA advocates who will be on Capitol Hill this week include members of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo and Hopi tribes, as well as former uranium workers and a group of St. Louis women affected by contamination issues in their community.
Advocates say those sickened by the tests have suffered from a multitude of radiation-related illnesses, including thyroid cancer and lung disease.
“So many in my family have suffered from radiation-related cancers,” said Maggie Billiman, one of the trip’s organizers, in a statement from the group.
Billiman and Cordova are described as downwinders, or people who have suffered effects of atomic radiation that was blown from the original testing site to other areas in the vicinity.
Billiman's father, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II and a downwinder, died from stomach cancer. She was part of a group that made a similar trip to Capitol Hill earlier this year.
The group will be in Washington, D.C., for several days, kicking off events with a briefing followed by a march to the Capitol on Tuesday morning. They'll also join members who have pushed for the plan, including Sens. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and several members in the House. They'll also hold demonstrations at the Capitol, including prayers, songs, dance and a vigil for several days.
On Wednesday, the group hopes to deliver medical documents to Johnson showing expenses incurred by survivors and their families to treat radiation-related illnesses, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony on the Capitol steps that evening.
"We go into financial ruin ... having been basically subject to a bomb by our own government, and then left to deal with the consequences on our own," Cordova said. "We regularly hold bake sales and garage sales to meet our expenses. In the greatest nation on earth, that's what we're left with. We were bombed as American citizens. ... And for Speaker Johnson to say it's going to cost too much is totally unconscionable."
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