Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Downwinders in Utah are celebrating the Senate passage of a bill to extend compensation to fallout victims from midcentury nuclear tests, but are disappointed both of Utah's Republican senators voted against the measure.
Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney voted against S3853 when it passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 69-30 on Thursday, but both said they supported an earlier version of the bill in 2022 that was more narrowly tailored. Sponsored by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, the bill extends the deadline to file for compensation by six years and expands the number of fallout victims who are covered.
Efforts to reapprove compensation for downwinders appear to have been boosted by an unlikely source, according to Salt Lake City playwright, downwinder and thyroid cancer survivor Mary Dickson. She said last year's box office hit and recent Best Picture-winning film "Oppenheimer" was a "godsend" for advocates, by bringing a groundswell of attention to the Manhattan Project and the Trinity Test of the world's first nuclear bomb in New Mexico.
Although the timing may be coincidental, the Senate passed S3853 just days before the J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic was crowned at the Academy Awards ceremony, something Dickson pointed out.
"It came up so fast. We had heard it might come up, but we were in meetings last Wednesday," when she was told it would likely be voted on the following day, Dickson told KSL.com on Wednesday. "The Thursday before the Oscars, that was pretty serendipitous."
Congress initially passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990 to provide partial restitution to people exposed to nuclear fallout after weapons tests in Nevada. The act extended benefits to so-called downwinders in southern Utah, but left many residents in northern Utah on their own.
Hawley's bill would expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to cover fallout victims who lived in northern Utah, in addition to Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Guam. It also covers affected uranium miners from several states.
This should not be about the money. You can't put a price tag on these people's lives and suffering.
– Mary Dickson
Although the bill doesn't include a 19-year extension advocates in Utah asked for last fall, its Senate passage is still a "huge" deal to downwinders in the Beehive State, according to Dickson. She was in the Senate gallery as the votes came in and described an "incredibly nerve-wracking" and "highly emotional" scene.
"Mitt Romney and Mike Lee voted no, and it's their state that stands to benefit," Dickson said. "Utahns are some of the hardest hit by fallout, and they didn't support their people. I can't tell you how discouraging and deeply disappointing that was."
Both Romney and Lee told KSL.com they supported a version of RECA extension in 2022, but disagreed with the scope of the current proposal.
"Sen. Romney supported a RECA extension that was enacted in June of 2022, which allowed residents of Utah affected by the nation's early nuclear program to be compensated for an additional two years," a spokesperson for Romney told KSL.com. "The recent Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act drastically expanded the eligibility for benefits beyond the geographic center of the federal government's Nevada Test Site and the list of diseases covered by RECA. Without clear evidence linking previous government action to the expanded list of illnesses — and a price tag north of $50 billion — Sen. Romney could not support the legislation."
"Sen. Lee was proud to reauthorize RECA in 2022 and introduce the Downwinders Act to extend protections for Utahns who were harmed by atomic testing," said Billy Gribbin, Lee's communications director. "This particular expansion of RECA, however, stretches the program to include wide geographic areas it was not intended to cover, without sufficient data, and would spend an additional $50 billion in taxpayer dollars without a pay-for to offset the cost. Sen. Lee doesn't want to endanger the RECA program by changing it so drastically, potentially diverting resources from Utahns who deserve compensation."
Sen. Lee doesn't want to endanger the RECA program by changing it so drastically, potentially diverting resources from Utahns who deserve compensation.
– Billy Gribbin, spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act provides benefits to downwinders who suffer from some forms of cancer likely caused by exposure to radiation, including some forms of leukemia, myeloma and lymphomas and primary cancers of the colon, thyroid and pancreas, among others. To qualify for compensation, downwinders must establish a physical presence in an eligible area for at least two years between Jan. 21, 1951, and Oct. 31, 1958, or the entire time period between Jun 30, 1962 and July 31, 1962, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The law is slated to expire in June, which would leave downwinders without compensation should they develop a new cancer or experience a relapse. Dickson urged lawmakers to approve the extension before the clock runs out because "once it expires, it's really hard to get that program back up and running."
Although S3853 cleared the Senate with strong support, its future remains uncertain in a narrowly divided House of Representatives.
"It's still incredibly relevant," Dickson said. "When you have been subjected to cumulative exposure over years, your chances of developing cancer during your lifetime increase significantly. So there are still people being diagnosed, people's cancers come back, you have other health complications. ... People still need help from the government."
"Are our lives worth a tiny fraction of what we spend to maintain those weapons that harmed us?" she added, noting the estimated cost of $756 billion to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal between 2023 and 2032. "This should not be about the money. You can't put a price tag on these people's lives and suffering."
