Senate approves expansion of fund for victims of nuclear waste exposure

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Thursday that would significantly expand a law that allowed victims of government-induced nuclear contamination who developed cancer and other serious illnesses to receive federal compensation.

The 69-30 vote reinforced long-held hopes that the federal government would take further steps to make amends to all those sickened by the legacy of the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The bill would revise a law passed more than two decades ago with an extremely limited scope intended to compensate those who participated in or were present at the testing of above-ground atomic bombs, a hallmark of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, or uranium miners who worked between 1942 and 1971.

But the writers of that original statute excluded large constituencies of those affected by the tests — people known as “downwinders” — including in large parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. They also completely left out communities in areas like Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Guam.

The law, led by Senators Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, and Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, would not only seek to remedy these omissions but also substantially extend it beyond the victims of the Cold War to others harmed suffered from the after-effects in the decades that followed. The law is expected to expire in June unless Congress decides to extend it before then.

“This is a moral issue,” Mr Hawley said. “The government exposed these good Americans to nuclear radiation without their consent, and mostly without any support. Now the government has to make things right, and that’s what this program is for. That is why the reauthorization update is absolutely necessary.”

The bill, which the White House approved in a statement Wednesday, calls for the federal government to compensate anyone seriously ill from the legacy of the country’s nuclear weapons program. It is unclear whether Speaker Mike Johnson will bring the legislation to a vote in the House of Representatives.

The bill would extend access to the federal fund for six years and expand access to Missouri residents sickened by radioactive waste that was never properly disposed of — and in some cases left out in the open near a creek – in St. Louis, home to a uranium processing plant in the 1940s.

a blockbuster report by The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press found last year that generations of families who grew up in the area have since dealt with “rare cancers, autoimmune diseases and other mysterious illnesses that they have come to believe are the result of exposure to water and sediment.”

The measure would also expand eligibility for citizens affected by testing or the cascading effects of uranium processing in certain zip codes in Alaska, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Since this bill was scheduled to be voted on,” Mr. Luján said, “I have heard from more colleagues about their communities harmed by our country’s complicated nuclear legacy.”

Momentum to renew and expand the program, an effort that has continued in fits and starts for years, increased in July, when the Senate voted to add a version of the measure to the annual defense policy bill . But the measure was ultimately dropped from the final version of the legislation after Republicans objected to the high price tag, which Congress estimates could be as much as $140 billion.

Mr. Hawley and Mr. Luján say they have since tweaked the legislation — eliminating a provision that would have provided additional compensation beyond the one-time payment for medical bills — so the cost will be closer to $40 billion. They also revised their bill to shorten the extension of the law from 19 years to six years.

The law has paid more than $2.5 billion It has provided benefits to more than 55,000 claimants since its creation in 1990, according to congressional researchers. Claimants, including children or grandchildren of those who would have benefited from the program but have since died, will receive a one-time payment ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.

Several dozen activists who have lobbied to expand the legislation — many of whom say exposure to radioactive waste has sickened them and their loved ones — watched from the stands as the vote took place.

As they left the Senate chamber afterward, some burst into tears.