The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), the quarter-century-old law designed to compensate Americans sickened by U.S. nuclear testing, expired this summer. But two Native American women are continuing to fight, even if they have to cover the costs themselves.
Loretta Anderson of the Pueblo of Laguna and Maggie Billiman of the Sawmill Chapter of the Navajo Nation have raised money to return to Washington from the Southwest on Tuesday to urge Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to submit a novel approval invoice which already Senate in the House of Representatives.
Anderson recently told The Hill that she first encountered the RECA issue when she worked for a home health care company that employed retired uranium miners. Many of the miners, she said, had worked after 1971, when benefits under the original RECA were no longer eligible.
“There was nothing available for them,” Anderson said.
The original 1990 law provided benefits of $50,000 for Americans living downwind of the Nevada nuclear test site, $100,000 for uranium miners and $75,000 for workers conducting nuclear weapons tests.
But advocates say several categories of people affected by the tests and their aftermath fell through the cracks. In addition to post-1971 uranium miners, RECA also offered no benefits to those living downwind of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test, nor to those affected by the contamination of St. Louis’ Coldwater Creek from wartime uranium processing, an issue that prompted current Missouri Senators Josh Hawley (R) and Eric Schmitt (R) to join the effort.
Because of these conversations, Anderson said, “I decided to organize a meeting. … It started quite small, [but] soon there were 50 people.”
“It’s been a challenge and a wonderful adventure,” she said. “I think everything from being a supervisor to being a part of different organizations has brought me to where I am now, and I’ve worked well and hard.”
Billiman is the daughter of a World War II Navajo code talker who died of stomach cancer, which she attributes to the effects of fallout from nuclear testing in the region. The loss, she says, motivated her, “why I had this fight in me.”
The aftermath of the Cold War and the nuclear testing and weapons development of World War II were particularly damaging to Native American communities in the American Southwest.
In addition to the wartime tests, the Navajo Nation is still suffering from the effects of the Church Rock incident of Billi’s teenage years. That 1979 accident caused a dam containing a reservoir for disposing of uranium waste to burst, releasing nearly 100 million gallons of radioactive waste, most of which landed on Navajo territory.
A bipartisan bill to renew RECA and expand its coverage to several more states passed the Senate in March by a 2-1 margin. But Johnson has not yet introduced the bill in the House. Sources familiar with his thinking say he has concerns about the cost and whether the bill – which passed with less than half the Senate Republican caucus’ vote – would get the votes it needs in the Republican-controlled House.
Another proposal, introduced by Utah Senators Mike Lee (R) and Mitt Romney (R), would have extended the law without expanding its scope. Both Lee and Romney voted against the more comprehensive bill passed by the Senate.
Johnson had scheduled a vote in the House on Lee and Romney’s bill, but withdrew it due to bipartisan and bicameral opposition. Meanwhile, RECA’s authorization expired in June.
Billiman told The Hill that the suspension of the law has not slowed her momentum.
“This is a positive thing now, [the motivation] to revive it,” she said. “We’re not going to let it die; we’re not going to let it go. It’s expired, and we have to pass this law. It has to be done.”
“We came together to organize this,” Anderson said. “We came together with the dream that maybe we should protest instead of just sitting there and letting this whole thing go away and nothing happen. We need to do something.”
Billiman and Anderson will join other activists in a lobbying campaign in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, including an attempt to arrange another meeting with Johnson.
“Many of our people have testified; we have heard hundreds and hundreds of stories about our people being sick, dying and suffering,” Anderson said.
Billiman said the ongoing fight to expand RECA has similarities to her warrior heritage as Native Americans.
“We are called warriors, [and] There’s a reason for that. It’s not about fistfights or calling anyone names,” she said, but rather a general refusal to back down or take no for an answer on such an vital issue.
“If I had to tell Mike Johnson, I would tell him that without my father we wouldn’t be here.”
