[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E960-E961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 STANDING UP FOR DOWNWINDERS UNDER THE RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION 
                               ACT (RECA)

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PAUL A. GOSAR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 21, 2022

  Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in continued support of the 
reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). I 
first learned about RECA through my constituents over 10 years ago, and 
since then I have been determined to get justice for the victims of 
reckless federal government policies that injured thousands.
  From 1945 to 1962, the United States government, through its 
military, conducted nearly 200 atmospheric weapons development tests as 
part of our nation's Cold War security strategy during an era when 
other nations were also engaged in nuclear weapons testing and 
proliferation. These tests exposed millions of innocent Americans to 
potentially cancer-causing ionized radiation from nuclear fallout. It 
is hard to believe today, but for over a decade the military was 
blasting tons of radioactive material into our skies. And this was the 
military that was supposed to protect Americans.
  One report, from the University of Kansas, explained that ``enormous 
clouds, pinkish-gray in color, rose up into the air, spreading out and 
reaching over nearby communities. At the time, not much information 
about these tests was available to the public, but the radioactive dust 
that fell from the clouds--gathering on people's homes, their cars, 
their clothes lines, and their vegetable gardens--caused serious and 
harmful long-term medical issues.''
  The report further documents just one person's experience with the 
radiation delivered over their farm in Utah:

       ``Not till the 1960s were we really aware of the danger of 
     those fallout materials. Mom and Dad were told that there was 
     nothing to worry about, it wasn't going to harm anybody. And 
     then people started getting sick! And passing away! And 
     thyroid cancer was a big one, it was huge . . . and then our 
     family lost that sweet little baby. Dad still thinks that 
     it's the milk Mom drank, and then Mom later on got colon 
     cancer, and none of that has ever shown up in her family. 
     There's no sign of colon cancer anywhere in the family. And 
     Mom died with colon cancer, and Dad and Warren were plagued 
     with skin cancer, and I've had a bit of skin cancer myself. 
     It's always a worry because, the people realized that the 
     government were lying to them! Literally lying to them. And 
     it just was sad, it was a sad situation.''

  When the injuries were discovered, Congress subsequently provided an 
apology on behalf of the nation and passed the Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act of 1990, or RECA, to establish a trust fund for 
partial restitution to individuals--commonly referred to as 
``Downwinders''--who have contracted certain cancers and other serious 
diseases that can be directly attributed to the radiation exposure from 
the nuclear weapons testing.
  The spread of radioactive material was not limited to Arizona, Utah 
and Nevada. It went essentially nationwide. The University of Kansas 
states, ``While the areas surrounding test sites in the southwestern 
states are some of the most heavily affected, air currents carried the 
radioactive particles all over the country, and even beyond the borders 
of the U.S.'' This information came from the National Cancer Institute.
  RECA was and is an effort to provide some very minimal compensation 
for the radiation victims. RECA is all we have now, even though it was 
too little and too late for many.
  I have long led legislation that would reauthorize RECA and expand 
eligibility for Downwinders compensation by including qualified 
individuals who were exposed in any part of Clark County, Nevada, or 
Mohave County, Arizona--immediately downwind jurisdictions from the 
testing site that have been excluded from compensation for decades due 
to a drafting error. The exclusion of my constituents in Mohave County, 
Arizona is an egregious injustice. It's clear that the original 
legislative intent was to include all of Mohave County and that the 
partial exclusion is a drafting error in the statutory text: In 1990, 
RECA was passed with Mohave County included. Then in 2000, S. 1515 
amended RECA expanding qualification to additional counties. The 
expansion of compensation to additional counties did not seek to 
exclude any jurisdiction. It only sought to ``increase'' Downwinders 
compensation to additional counties. In amending the Act, the House of 
Representatives stated in the House Report that Congress's goal in 
amending the Act was to ``increase'' the existing Downwinder areas to 
``include'' additional areas. The House report makes clear that the 
drafters sought to increase the area that had been covered under the 
prior version and to add new counties. In reality, Congress added new 
counties to the affected area but also mistakenly eliminated a large 
portion of Mohave County. In short, legal malpractice in drafting

[[Page E961]]

the statute cut out more than half of Mohave County, one of the most 
impacted counties in the U.S.
  The statutory text is at odds with the stated goals of House Report 
106-697 which states ``S. 1515 would increase the Downwinder ``affected 
area'' to include . . . the counties of Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, 
Apache, and Gila in Arizona.'' It says nothing about excluding any 
county. This drafting error has had a direct impact on people's health 
and safety and has cost many of my constituents the compensation they 
deserve. I call for immediate rectification of RECA to clarify that the 
original text and later amendments never sought to exclude my 
constituents in Mohave County, Arizona from qualifying for Downwinders 
compensation.
  But Madam Speaker, there is more. As the maps demonstrate, 
radioactive fallout was documented across the United States. It is not 
just Mohave County that should be included under RECA, but all 
contiguous 48 states. There is evidence of fallout in every state. Only 
the furthest west areas, such as L.A. escaped radiation. But Eastern 
California was exposed. For that reason, I am urging an amendment to 
RECA as we reauthorize it: RECA should allow claims from any person who 
lived in a documented radiation zone during the test years that later 
developed a cancer related to radiation exposure.
  The government sacrificed its people to test the bombs. Moralists can 
argue if that was the right thing to do at the time. But today, 70 
years later, the moral debate is irrelevant. The people have been hurt. 
Families devasted. They were unwittingly sacrificed as foot soldiers in 
a war they did not sign up for. At a minimum, the federal government 
today has the moral obligation to recognize their sacrifice and 
compensate the victims.

                          ____________________