Over the summer, Congress allowed a 34-year-old federal law that compensates victims of Cold War-era radiation exposure to lapse. It has left many people who are suffering from cancers and other grave health problems unable to pay for vital care. Now, an effort is underway to pressure lawmakers to renew and expand the program before the end of the year.
Maggie Billiman was just 4 years old when she says she witnessed a nighttime nuclear detonation at her home in a remote stretch of the Navajo Nation.
“We saw this mushroom cloud. And it was huge,” she says. “Like, you could see the hole—above the tree was red all the way across.”
Her mother told her not to look at the mysterious phenomenon, but she was still able to peek through the curtains to see the towering plume hanging in the air.
“My mom didn't speak no English at all, so she didn't know what it was. She goes, it could be the star,” Billiman says.
It was this presumed nuclear test, and possibly others, that Billiman believes sickened numerous members of her family—three siblings, cousins, a nephew and many others in her community suffer from thyroid, lung, liver and kidney issues. At this moment, Billiman herself is recovering from pancreas surgery.
“I wanted to be able to save my family, my community across the reservation, you know, there's just many people dying, they're dying right now, suffering and dying,” she says.
Billiman’s mother also had ovarian cancer and her father, Navajo Code Talker Howard Billiman Jr., died from stomach cancer. Before his death, he received a $50,000 payout from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, known as RECA. For many, the payments only end up covering a small fraction of their mountains of medical debt.
“My father saved this country. For me, I wasn’t in it for the money. You can’t put a price tag on family,” says Billiman.
The 1990 law offered partial restitution to those like the Billimans who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site. It also covers uranium miners and other workers in several states, including Arizona and New Mexico, who can receive a $100,000 payment for lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and other conditions. Those who were so-called “onsite participants” in the nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests between the 1940s and early 1960s can receive $75,000, and downwinders $50,000, for a long list of cancers including stomach, lung, thyroid and pancreas along with leukemia and lymphoma.
But last June, RECA was allowed to expire after leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives refused to take up a bill to renew it, leaving those who haven’t yet filed a claim or who become sick in the future without compensation. So, Maggie Billiman and other downwinders hopped on a bus to Washington, D.C.
“There's only the fight in me that's going,” she says. “I want to get there, to be able to be recognized and have some dignity before we all die, you know, vanish. But our next generation, I hope they continue to fight.”
In DC, she brought a stack of medical bills to the office of Speaker Mike Johnson, who Billiman says refused to meet with the protestors. So far, Johnson has not allowed a House vote on RECA as some Republicans have balked at the projected cost to renew and expand it. Nonetheless, RECA still has broad bipartisan support in Congress.
“Well, those that would think of this issue as a moral test are correct. It is a moral test,” says Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton.
He and other lawmakers are pressuring House leadership to act on RECA before the end of the year.
“It's a measure of justice. It's not full justice, but certainly it's the right thing to do to those that have been so negatively impacted by these actions of the United States government,” says Stanton.
RECA is a rare issue that has united Democrats, like Stanton, with conservative Republicans, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. Stanton hopes it will eventually be attached to a must-pass piece of legislation before Congress’ current lame-duck session ends and ahead of a new White House administration.
“This is a unique moment. We should grab it while we can. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Stanton.
In March, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved the reauthorization and expansion of RECA. The legislation covers additional illnesses and exposure to nuclear waste sites and makes uranium mine staff who worked through 1990 eligible for benefits. It also adds parts of Mohave County not included in the original program, despite their close proximity to nuclear testing only about 60 miles north of Las Vegas.
“They set off bombs in Nevada and irradiated Kingman, Arizona, from 1952 until 1962,” says Cullin Pattillo of the group Mohave County Downwinders. “At this stage, they haven’t even acknowledged that they did that to southern Mohave County.”
For years, Pattillo has fought to add a swath of western Arizona to the RECA coverage area. Like many near Kingman, radiation-related diseases and cancer have plagued generations of his family. His aunt and father suffered from multiple forms of cancer before their deaths. Had southern Mohave County been part of RECA, they likely would have been entitled to compensation.
“It’s obscene what they're doing,” says Pattillo. “Quite honestly, my father at least deserves to be acknowledged as a hero-patriot of the Cold War. He sacrificed his life.”
Pattillo himself had 60% of his thyroid removed because of a tumor. He says his family’s medical bills stretch well into the millions of dollars, and RECA could offer a small but meaningful glimmer of relief. But whether that relief comes is up to House lawmakers, who have only a few weeks to act on the program before a new Congress is sworn in in early January.
“It needs to pass,” Pattillo says, “and they need to stop playing politics because really, at the end of the day, you're playing with people's lives.”
