On Wednesday, June 27, 2018, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposed amendments to Senate Bill 197 in Washington, D.C., to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include the Trinity Downwinders and Post'71 Uranium Workers. The title of the hearing is, Examining the Eligibility Requirements for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program to Ensure all Downwinders Receive Coverage. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/examining-the-eligibility-requirements-for-the-radiation-exposure-compensation-program-to-ensure-all-downwinders-receive-coverage

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), a federal law passed by United States Congress in 1990, awarded financial reparations to Nevada Test Site Downwinders, on-site test participants during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, and uranium miners and millers who worked before 1971 and developed cancer and/or other specific illnesses as a result of radioactive fallout or radon gasses to which they were exposed.

Trinity test Downwinders in New Mexico were not included in the original Act, nor were they included in year 2000 amendments to the Act.

Residents of southern New Mexico, present and future generations, have and will experience high levels of cancer and other illnesses that have occurred since the 1945 test, the first atmospheric nuclear test ever to have taken place in the world.

Currently-proposed amendments to the Act would include New Mexico downwinders and make Trinity Downwinders eligible for reparations to compensate for their unknowing and unwilling participation as bystanders to the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945.

Since enacted into law in 1990, discussions on the status of RECA have been focused heavily on the financial and economic benefits (and disadvantages) of the RECA program with the U.S. Department of Justice's Constitutional and Specialized Tort Litigation section.

Tina Cordova, co-Founder of the TBDC, states, "We've been waiting 8 years for a hearing. There will be 10 of us going, representing all of New Mexico, but from communities like Carrizozo, San Antonio, Socorro, Tularosa, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Pojoaque, Ruidoso and downwinders who live in Texas and California. We plan to tell Congress in the best way possible about the suffering and sacrifice that has been endured by so many for the last 73 years. We are also scheduling individual meetings with key members of Congress."

The TBDC will also recommend that five changes be made to Senate Bill 197.

First, we request that the U.S. Government Issue an apology to the people of New Mexico for the intentional bombing of those living downwind of the first atomic test on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity site in southcentral New Mexico.

Second, the eligibility period must be expanded. Currently, only those Downwinders who were exposed between June 30, 1945, and July 31, 1945, – a 30-day period – are eligible to apply for RECA.

As documented in our 2017 health impact assessment, "Unknowing, Unwilling and Uncompensated: The Effects of the Trinity Test on New Mexicans and the Potential Benefits of Radiation Exposure Compensation Amendments," we demonstrate how lack of access to health care, economic impact, and generational trauma affect the People's health and the health and well-being of their families to the current day. https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/health-impact-assessment, pdf pp.12, 75 - 77.

The Trinity Downwinders request that an open-ended eligibility period be provided.

Third, the bill must require that the medical care provided to the Downwinders be similar to that available to nuclear workers under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.

Fourth, the current RECA legislation is set to sunset on July 9, 2022. The Downwinders request that the sunset provision be extended to at least July 9, 2045.

And finally, Congress does not always provide the necessary annual funding to the RECA Trust Fund, as shown in the mid-1990s when the U.S. Department of Justice wrote I.O.U.s to Uranium Workers. The Downwinders request that recurrent annual funding be included in the proposed amendments.