Wednesday August 12, 2009
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RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act)
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In 1990, Congress passed the Radioactivity Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to provide assistance to those directly affected by nuclear testing in the United States. The RECA program compensates victims who received fallout from nuclear testing in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s. At the time of passage, RECA only covered people in certain counties in Utah, Colorado and Arizona. Concerns soon developed that arbitrary geographic restrictions precluded deserving parties from being considered for compensation. In 1999, Senator Orrin Hatch (R–Utah) introduced legislation to include more counties in Arizona, and that legislation was signed into law in 2000.
In 2005, the National Academy of Sciences released a report calling on Congress to establish new scientific criteria for decisions about awarding federal compensation under the program, arguing that states far from the original Nevada Test Site were not only exposed to radiation, but may even have been exposed to much higher levels than those in currently eligible areas. In a speech on the Senate floor in 2005, I expressed my support for that report and cited Idaho as an example, as areas in our have demonstrably higher incidences of thyroid dosage of radiation than any other county currently covered by RECA. It seems unconscionable to me that people living in these areas are not eligible for compensation.
As a result of my concerns, I introduced legislation in the 109th and 110th Congresses that would include Idaho and Montana as affected areas for purposes of making claims under RECA. RECA has already been expanded to include additional counties and a new category of claimants, and I believe strongly that affected Idahoans deserve consideration under RECA. As such, I am reintroducing this legislation in the 111th Congress and am pleased to again be joined by my colleagues in Montana, Senators Baucus and Tester.
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