On Sunday morning, more than 50 indigenous radiation victims traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest for inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Both tribal and pueblo members from New Mexico and Arizona are included. The plan is to demand lawmakers renew the expired act and expand its coverage after House Speaker Mike Johnson tabled a bill to do so. “They don’t realize it; nobody realizes the pain we deal with,” said Evie Tososie, a uranium mine worker. Tososie is a three-time cancer survivor. She is originally from Arizona but has worked in New Mexico at the uranium mines. “We were never told of the dangers of working in the uranium when we got into it,” Tososie said. “We actually do these things for the government yet we’re being considered, Natives are working in the uranium mines, and they don’t want to compensate us.” The RECA Act compensated for cancer screenings and medical expenses for those exposed to radiation. The bill that would have renewed the act and expanded its coverage expired after it never made it to the House floor. “We need to get this bill for our people. Daily, our people are sick, suffering and dying, and he (Johnson) needs to get this bill to the House. That’s my goal, that’s what I hope to do,” said Loretta Anderson, co-founder of the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post ’71. Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Downwinders, said Johnson needs to listen. “This is not a partisan issue, and we should never view it that way. To actually say the reason for not passing the bill is that it’s going to cost too much when we have spent trillions of dollars on our nuclear arsenal is obscene,” Cordova said. “I know that when we’re in D.C., all of us together standing together on the footsteps of the capital, I know this will gather a lot of attention. People are going to be talking about it, and it will raise our voices in a way that’s never happened.” The group plans to protest Tuesday through Thursday.
On Sunday morning, more than 50 indigenous radiation victims traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest for inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Both tribal and pueblo members from New Mexico and Arizona are included. The plan is to demand lawmakers renew the expired act and expand its coverage after House Speaker Mike Johnson tabled a bill to do so.
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“They don’t realize it; nobody realizes the pain we deal with,” said Evie Tososie, a uranium mine worker.
Tososie is a three-time cancer survivor. She is originally from Arizona but has worked in New Mexico at the uranium mines.
“We were never told of the dangers of working in the uranium when we got into it,” Tososie said. “We actually do these things for the government yet we’re being considered, Natives are working in the uranium mines, and they don’t want to compensate us.”
The RECA Act compensated for cancer screenings and medical expenses for those exposed to radiation. The bill that would have renewed the act and expanded its coverage expired after it never made it to the House floor.
“We need to get this bill for our people. Daily, our people are sick, suffering and dying, and he (Johnson) needs to get this bill to the House. That’s my goal, that’s what I hope to do,” said Loretta Anderson, co-founder of the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post ’71.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Downwinders, said Johnson needs to listen.
“This is not a partisan issue, and we should never view it that way. To actually say the reason for not passing the bill is that it’s going to cost too much when we have spent trillions of dollars on our nuclear arsenal is obscene,” Cordova said. “I know that when we’re in D.C., all of us together standing together on the footsteps of the capital, I know this will gather a lot of attention. People are going to be talking about it, and it will raise our voices in a way that’s never happened.”
The group plans to protest Tuesday through Thursday.
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