Nuclear Waste Exposure Victims Fund in limbo as Congress balks at paying high price
Bipartisan efforts to extend and expand a program providing compensation to victims of government-caused nuclear contamination are failing. It is set to expire in June.
More than two decades ago, Congress declared that victims of government-caused nuclear contamination who developed cancer and other serious illnesses, including uranium miners, and those exposed to radiation from Manhattan Project-era atomic testing — should receive federal compensation.
“The health of individuals who unwittingly participated in these tests was put at risk. to further the national security interests of the United States,” reads the law enacted in 1990. “The United States should recognize and take responsibility for the harm caused to these individuals. »
Now that law, known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, is in jeopardy and set to expire in June without a clear path forward is planned for its renewal. And efforts to dramatically expand it beyond the victims of the Cold War, to others who have been harmed by its aftermath in the decades since, have hit a brick wall on Capitol Hill.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly in July to attach legislation renewing and expanding the program to the annual defense policy bill. But in the final version negotiated behind the doors of congressional leaders, the measure, sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, and Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, was abandoned.
Republicans have objected to its high price tag, which congressional officials estimate could exceed $100 billion.
In an angry speech Thursday, Mr. Hawley said the move amounted to Congress “undoing” the apology it made to victims decades ago.
“This allows this program to expire,” he said. “This turns our backs on the tens of thousands of good Americans who sacrificed for their country, who dutifully gave their health and, in many cases, their lives to this country, and got nothing.”
The original legislation was written with a narrow scope, meaning to compensate those who participated or were present in the testing atomic bombs on the surface, a feature of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, or uranium miners who worked between 1942 and 1971.
The law paid more than $2.5 billion in benefits to more than 55,000 claimants since its inception in 1990, according to congressional researchers. Applicants, who may include the children or grandchildren of those who would have benefited from the program but have since died, receive a one-time payment ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
The An updated version by Mr. Hawley and Mr. Luján would increase the number of people eligible to receive compensation and also increase the highest payment to $150,000. The law currently restricts eligibility to "down-winders", or people who lived near one of the testing sites, to those who resided in a handfu...
Bipartisan efforts to extend and expand a program providing compensation to victims of government-caused nuclear contamination are failing. It is set to expire in June.
More than two decades ago, Congress declared that victims of government-caused nuclear contamination who developed cancer and other serious illnesses, including uranium miners, and those exposed to radiation from Manhattan Project-era atomic testing — should receive federal compensation.
“The health of individuals who unwittingly participated in these tests was put at risk. to further the national security interests of the United States,” reads the law enacted in 1990. “The United States should recognize and take responsibility for the harm caused to these individuals. »
Now that law, known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, is in jeopardy and set to expire in June without a clear path forward is planned for its renewal. And efforts to dramatically expand it beyond the victims of the Cold War, to others who have been harmed by its aftermath in the decades since, have hit a brick wall on Capitol Hill.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly in July to attach legislation renewing and expanding the program to the annual defense policy bill. But in the final version negotiated behind the doors of congressional leaders, the measure, sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, and Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, was abandoned.
Republicans have objected to its high price tag, which congressional officials estimate could exceed $100 billion.
In an angry speech Thursday, Mr. Hawley said the move amounted to Congress “undoing” the apology it made to victims decades ago.
“This allows this program to expire,” he said. “This turns our backs on the tens of thousands of good Americans who sacrificed for their country, who dutifully gave their health and, in many cases, their lives to this country, and got nothing.”
The original legislation was written with a narrow scope, meaning to compensate those who participated or were present in the testing atomic bombs on the surface, a feature of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, or uranium miners who worked between 1942 and 1971.
The law paid more than $2.5 billion in benefits to more than 55,000 claimants since its inception in 1990, according to congressional researchers. Applicants, who may include the children or grandchildren of those who would have benefited from the program but have since died, receive a one-time payment ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
The An updated version by Mr. Hawley and Mr. Luján would increase the number of people eligible to receive compensation and also increase the highest payment to $150,000. The law currently restricts eligibility to "down-winders", or people who lived near one of the testing sites, to those who resided in a handfu...
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