[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 8 (Thursday, February 3, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            THE DOWNWINDERS

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I hope my colleagues and the American 
people saw the ABC News show ``Turning Point'' last night. The show 
told the stories of a few of America's cold-war casualties, the 
downwinders. The downwinders of southern Utah are a clean-living, 
healthy people who were visited with a deadly, cancerous plague from 
the nuclear fallout blown downwind from the Nevada test site. The 
stories of disease and death were wrenching; the stories of Government 
lies, shocking. But most tragic of all, Mr. President, is the fact that 
the stories of the Nissons, the Jolleys, the Petersons, and the 
Picketts are not the only downwinder stories. No, their stories of lost 
loved ones are repeated hundreds, and even thousands of times, across 
southern Utah, across the Western States--and perhaps across the entire 
country.
  Mr. President, Quentin Nisson was not the only one to lose a brother. 
Helen Jolley was not the only one to lose a husband and a son. Claudia 
Peterson was not the only one to lose a daughter. Elmer Pickett was not 
the only one to lose a wife, a sister, a niece, and so many others. And 
they are not the only ones who have borne their loss with dignity, and 
suffered their Government's indignity with grace. No, Mr. President, 
these qualities are a birthright of a people whose pioneer progenitors 
forged life out of that desert land, of a people who made the wasteland 
blossom into a homeland when the United States of their generation 
expelled them. The downwinders naturally come by a collective character 
as rugged as their rugged country.
  The downwinders are people who have given greatly, but have expected 
little, from their Government. But after a generation of deaths and 
Government lies and denials, their patience ended. When I came to 
Congress in the late 1970's, I took up their fight. And after more than 
a decade, after lost court cases and other setbacks, the downwinders 
won a victory in Congress. With the passage of the Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act of 1990, many of those affected by the fallout would 
finally receive a small measure of compensation. But to all the 
downwinders, there was an unprecedented provision which was apparently 
missed in last night's report. In the act is included a congressional 
apology on behalf of the Nation to all the downwinders and their 
families for the hardships they have endured. Mr. President, the 
downwinders should know that the Nation is aware of their plight and 
shares their sorrow. The Nation apologizes to them and their families.
  And, Mr. President, as we embark on a review of other radiation 
victimizations, we should remember those children of pioneers who are 
themselves pioneers in this tragic chapter of our national life, the 
downwinders. I have written to Secretary O'Leary to offer my 
assistance, and I have been involved in other efforts to ensure that 
any new information about radioactive weapons tests at Dugway, UT, or 
further information about the downwinders, is brought to light. I plan 
to be involved in the process of reviewing our nuclear testing 
activities because of the lessons I have learned from the downwinders.
  And of the many lessons we draw from their stories, we must remember 
in the future always to own up to the full costs of our national 
decisions, and to be responsible for them. Because it is right, and 
because, Mr. President, as we are slowly learning, and as was 
graphically portrayed last night, we are all, in a sense, downwinders.

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