- December 12, 2023
WATCH: Luján Speaks on Senate Floor in Support of RECA
Since being elected to Congress, Senator Luján has played the leading role in advancing legislation to strengthen the RECA program. He has introduced RECA legislation in every Congress since being elected in 2008.
WATCH: Luján Speaks on Senate Floor in Support of RECA
Senator Luján’s remarks, as delivered, are available below:
Mr. President, I rise in support of Senator Hawley’s Motion to Table.
Mr. President, I speak today on behalf of Annie, and Henry, and Cipriano, Rosemary, Tina, Louisa, Francisco, Laura, Wilbert, Charles, and the thousands upon thousands of people who’ve endured the agony and suffering brought on by our nuclear weapons testing in New Mexico and across the country.
In July of 1945, Annie was in her kitchen with her family when all of a sudden they heard a [loud boom].
The next second, they were on the floor. Holding onto one another. Trying to comfort each other. Because around them, windows were shattering and walls were crumbling.
When they went outside, they thought it started to snow. But it was ash, falling from the sky. Some families that were away from the community later that night returned only to find clothing that they were hanging on a drying line, full of this ash. They didn’t know where it was coming from.
Both Annie and her youngest sister Marcie were the only two children living in their little home, their casita, in Capitan, New Mexico. Both have died from cancer.
Henry was just 11 years old when the bomb went off. He recalls thinking the world was ending.
Henry watched as his brother, his nephew, and niece all died of cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 63. And I’m sorry to say, we lost him in 2022.
And it’s not just the Downwinders that were impacted.
Cipriano worked in the uranium mines for eight years.
Now, the Personal Protective Equipment he was given? A single paper mask. One per shift.
That mask was useless, after, into the first hour because it would get covered with something that we’ve known to be called as ‘yellowcake.’ The particulate from the uranium mine that would cover everything including places where some of these uranium mine workers would go to have their lunch and they would try to clean the dust off, but they could never keep up with it because it just kept accumulating.
Some folks were told, just wait till you get home to shake the yellowcake, the dust off your clothing, because in those mines, sometimes they would spread water in those mines to keep the particulate down while it got the miner’s clothing wet so the yellowcake would stick to it. Hard to peel off. So wait till you get home and it dries to shake it off.
Many of these families, namely the Navajo uranium mine workers, lived in a one home generational house. So if you go home and start shaking your clothing filled with a yellowcake that then dries off, what are you doing to Grandma and Grandpa, to your siblings, to your kids and maybe your grandkids when that particulate is now all around you?
Cipriano lived with shortness of breath since he was in his 20s. Later, he developed pulmonary fibrosis, kidney failure, and eventually needed a kidney transplant. He, too, sadly passed away.
All of these stories, medical traumas, and generational pain are happening on our watch.
And while millions of people flocked to the theaters this summer to see a big blockbuster that told a story about this Trinity Test that took place.
Some of us know what that is. Trinity Test which took place on the Tularosa basin in the first place that a nuclear bomb was set off on American soil to test it. But not much was mentioned about these families who are dying from cancer today.
You know, some Navajo elders, some women, some Grandmas, as we call them, came to Congress when I was a member of the House to testify and during one of those conversations, one of those elders asked a question back to those of us that were on the dais, and she said, “Are you waiting for all of us to die, so that the problem goes away?”
I don’t know what to say to her when I go home and I’ll see her right now. Because this legislation, which we all fought for, and I want to thank Senator Hawley for finding a way for us to work together to fight for the families in and around Missouri, working with Senator Crapo, and every one of you for making this happen.
And we passed this with a bipartisan strong vote out of the Senate and it’s now been taken out of the NDAA and this conference.
What do I tell these families?
There’s a lot that I’ve learned in this body, the challenges and frustrations that exist for our constituents, for each and every one of us on occasion. But I’ve also learned that, especially here in the Senate, that the fight is never over, that there’s always something that can be done. When I listen to the brilliant parliamentarian team and they teach me on how I can do my job better for the people that I represent.
I know that a ‘yes’ vote on this might be challenging, but the families in states all across America, what can we do to help them?
In the same way that this body came together to pass incredible pieces of policy to help victims due to exposure.
I’ll point most recently to an action this Congress took after 9/11 when we got together in a bipartisan way and we said we’re going to pass the Zadroga Act. And that Act was not only passed once, but then it was extended until 2090 because it was the right thing to do and it cost some money.
But it was the right thing to do. There’s a liability from the United States of America to these families. I believe that the CBO should actually be using this as a ‘pay for’ because when there’s a liability from the United States of America and you fix it, it actually creates credit, a path forward to pay for everything else.
But for some reason, the CBO does not release disaggregated data to help us better understand what’s happening here.
So, Mr. President, I plead and I urge with my colleagues that we find a way to do the right thing here. That going forward we find a path to get this done. And I want to say thank you to all the staff and the members who know about these families now.
You’ve taken time to understand them, and many of you have given me advice on how we can do things better, and I thank you for that, the families thank you for that. So I hope that this fight will not be forgotten.
I urge my Republican and Democratic leadership to work with us to help pass the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act amendments. I thank Senator Hawley and I yield back my time.
###
