ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It has been a long road for people in New Mexico who have been waiting for compensation after being exposed to radiation from the Trinity Site. Now, a recent move from the Speaker of the House may delay compensation even more.

House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a vote that was supposed to reauthorize RECA. The program is set to expire by June 10, 2024.

Since 1992, the Justice Department estimates RECA has provided around $2.6 billion in compensation for mining workers who were exposed to radiation from nuclear testing in the United States. However, the program has never included workers in New Mexico.

Lawmakers in New Mexico have been working to expand the bill to include Downwinders in our state who started between 1972-1990.

“We must reauthorize this program, it expires on June 10, 2024. So it has to be reauthorized so we can help the existing families, especially the Navajo families on the western part of the state. If it is not expanded, thousands of Downwinders in the Tularosa Basin whose families had radiation literally snow down on them after the testing of the atomic weapon will be left behind,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury. 

Despite the vote being pulled by the Speaker of the House, the New Mexico delegation said not all hope is lost, and they are working on another solution.

On Friday, they filed an amendment attached to the National Defense Authorization Act. 

“We are preparing and submitting amendments through the National Defense Authorization Act to include RECA. The expanded RECA in that legislation. We’ll keep moving, we have about three different avenues that we are continuing to push for so we can get compensation for all of those who are suffering and dying because of the radiation exposure and our nuclear program,” said Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez. 

Rep. Gabe Vasquez also spoke about RECA during a house armed services meeting last week.

KOB 4 reached out to U.S. senators Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich, who also weighed in on the fate of RECA and expanding the program: 

“There is broad bipartisan support to strengthen RECA and provide long-overdue justice for victims and survivors in New Mexico and across the country. For over a decade, I’ve built a strong coalition of House and Senate members, the Biden administration, and advocates to find a path forward to extend and expand RECA. With the strong Senate vote, we accomplished that. The best path forward right now is for the Speaker to allow for a House vote on my legislation with Senators Hawley and Crapo. I am confident that there would be strong bipartisan support in the House and that President Biden would sign the legislation into law to strengthen and save the RECA program.” – U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján.

“The Tularosa Downwinders and uranium miners have experienced the real-life costs of radiation exposure for generations. They don’t need lectures now on “costs” from House Republicans; they need RECA reauthorized and expanded. It’s long overdue for the House take up and pass our legislation to get this done. We cannot let the RECA program expire.” – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich.