Give RECA to all states

Proposed legislation by Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig and Montana Sen. Conrad Burns to amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include both states failed in the last Congressional session but did not die.

All three Senators are joining forces again to reintroduce the bill with the support of other states that would compensate those showing medical evidence they were harmed by nuclear testing fallout in the 1950's and 1960's. The federal program enacted in 1990 has reimbursed Downwinders - the term used for victims of nearly 1,000 atomic tests at the Nevada Test Site - with $50,000 to $150,000 stipends in 22 rural counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommends that Congress revise RECA to base compensation on medical history of applicants and not just geographic designation. It also suggested narrowing the focus because exposure to radioactive fallout was not a substantial contributing cause of a number of cancers.

Residents of the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas U.S.U.S. territories who have been diagnosed with specific RECA-compensable diseases and who may have been exposed, even in utero, to radiation from nuclear-weapons testing fallout should be compensated, the report said.

We concur with the NAS report, but how do you do that when the money is not there? The RECA trust fund has had major shortfalls that presidential discretionary funds of $72 million covered to make it whole through 2005. The General Accounting Office estimated that the funding levels appropriated to the RECA trust fund would be insufficient to meet the projected claims and will require a further $107 million through fiscal year 2011.

Unless Congress acts swiftly and sets policy, the money will not be there for the RECA-designated areas let alone any expanded geographic coverage. Crapo, Craig and Burns are right to seek fairness from RECA for their states. Utah would do well to support their efforts as should every state in the union to demand that the same impartiality be applied because just like war veterans, Downwinders sacrificed their health and lives so that America could win the Cold War.

These victims are just as much national heroes to whom the country owes justice as soldiers who made sacrifices on the battlefield. Of course, we've seen how we treat our war heroes.