ST. GEORGE — A bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, is requesting a hearing on a proposed expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), aimed at reaching victims throughout the western U.S.
whose high rates of cancer and other diseases have been tied to radiation exposure.

RECA currently provides funding to qualified “downwinders” in Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne counties. The proposed expansion would extend coverage to all of Utah, along with the other six states, and increase the list of illnesses eligible for compensation.

Introduced in April, the bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee for consideration, and the group wrote a letter to the committee requesting the hearing.

“This bill … would address key deficiencies in RECA, and extend compensation to a number of currently unqualified but suffering uranium workers and downwinders,” the group wrote in a press release. “Considering the importance of this legislation for many of our constituents, we respectfully request that you move quickly to hold a hearing on this legislation.”

The bill would expand eligibility compensation to residents throughout the states of Utah, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, provide medical benefits to all downwinders, increase compensation rates so that all downwinders could receive $150,000, and count as downwinders those harmed by radiation from testing in New Mexico and Guam, among other changes.

Neither of Utah’s Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett are sponsors of the proposed legislation.

Hatch, who introduced the original RECA legislation in 1990 and fought to expand it several times since, said “while I certainly support many of the goals of Sen. Udall’s bill, particularly the expansion of the RECA program to assist those who were harmed, I fear it is overly broad and prohibitively expensive.”

Hatch said he also wants any expansions to the program on sound science, attracting criticism from some downwinders.

Rep. Jim Matheson, a supporter, is sponsoring similar legislation for the U.S. House.