{"id":26007,"date":"2024-08-22T16:15:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T16:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/downwinders-pressure-speaker-mike-johnson-on-reca-during-his-new-mexico-visit\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:31:40","slug":"downwinders-pressure-speaker-mike-johnson-on-reca-during-his-new-mexico-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/downwinders-pressure-speaker-mike-johnson-on-reca-during-his-new-mexico-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Downwinders pressure Speaker Mike Johnson on RECA during his New Mexico visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"About
About 30 people held signs and chanted for expanding compensation for radiation victims outside of the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museaum on Wednesday. U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attended several events in Las Cruces. Danielle Prokop\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

LAS CRUCES \u2013 Downwinders had a message for the U.S. House speaker on Wednesday: You\u2019re failing people the federal government exposed to radiation and hurting their chance at some measure of justice.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attended a private event supporting candidate Yvette Herrell seeking to again represent the 2nd Congressional District in New Mexico, and then for a public event announcing national GOP investment in her campaign and other down-ballot races.<\/p>\n

Despite the sun beating down on a stretch of gravel outside Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, spirits were high for the 30 or so rallying there, many of whom wore shirts bearing slogans directed at Johnson: \u201cPass RECA before we die,\u201d or \u201cWe are the unknowing, unwilling, uncompensated.\u201d<\/p>\n

RECA is the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which expired in June after decades of offering financial assistance to people harmed by U.S. nuclear weapons development. People in New Mexico were never included among those who could seek compensation despite having been downwind of the world\u2019s first nuclear blast.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan push in Congress to expand the program failed. Some advocates are still holding out hope for a bill on Johnson\u2019s desk that could extend and expand RECA.<\/p>\n

Bernice Gutierrez, a member of Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium board, said she was frustrated that the years of organizing by her group and others is being thwarted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne man is holding up this whole process. He\u2019s denying justice to everybody,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez was 8 days-old in 1945, when the first atomic bomb exploded at the Trinity Site in the Jornada Del Muerto, just 35 miles from her hometown in Carrizozo, New Mexico. Her family has been plagued by aggressive and deadly cancers, which pushed her into the fight.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez said Johnson isn\u2019t just hurting New Mexicans, he\u2019s hurting thousands of people nationwide \u2013 in far more Republican House districts than Democratic ones \u2013 who would finally receive benefits after radiation exposure from uranium mining and aboveground nuclear tests.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses a crowd of about 100 people in Las Cruces Wednesday to support Republican candidate for the 2nd Congressional District Yvette Herrell. Danielle Prokop\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
RECA then and now<\/div>\n

Johnson has blocked an effort to expand and extend the life of the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, over the objections of members of his own party, who represent people exposed to radiation.<\/p>\n

S. 3853 would allow thousands of people in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri and Guam \u2013 and uranium workers after 1972 \u2013 who have suffered diseases linked to radiation exposure to be eligible for compensation. The bill passed the Senate in a 69-30 vote in March.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s publicly expressed concerns start and end with the costs of expanding the program.<\/p>\n

Since its start in 1990 until the program\u2019s sunset in June, the fund paid out $2.6 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that costs would rise to between $50 billion and $60 billion over the next decade.<\/p>\n

While advocates have disagreed on the accuracy of that figure, it\u2019s also only a portion of the estimated $756 billion in spending for the nuclear weapons program between 2023 and 2032.<\/p>\n

RECA is a unique fund that paid out lump-sums to people exposed to radiation from decades of nuclear tests or uranium mining before 1972. The program only compensated downwinders in a handful of counties in Arizona, Utah and Nevada.<\/p>\n

However, there is a growing nationwide reckoning that radiation exposure has harmed more communities causing rare cancers, diseases and low birth rates.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve sacrificed enough\u2019<\/div>\n

A call went up among people wearing yellow and black shirts and matching banners \u2013 evoking hazmat \u2013 as the flashing lights of a motorcade rounded the curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cPass RECA now!\u201d they chanted, as the motorcade carrying the speaker turned the corner, with escorts from federal, local and state police. The people ensconced in black SUVs in the center, had their heads turned away from the signs as they passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a New Mexican. I feel we\u2019re all Downwinders here,\u201d said Joaquin Lujan. He drove from Polvadera, outside of Socorro, to attend.<\/p>\n

Lujan, 72, said the failure of the government to expand the program was a shame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans, I don\u2019t know, they\u2019re just not part of la gente,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have to be out here. This is so important to our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don Meaders, a retired leader in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, made a cross as part of the message to Johnson, saying it\u2019s unconscionable to not help people exposed to radiation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cross is a symbol of sacrifice, and we\u2019ve sacrificed enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

RECA and the election<\/div>\n

Members of the New Mexico Democratic party and supporters of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez joined the Downwinders outside the museum. Some held signs about reproductive rights, which have been curtailed by Republican policies.<\/p>\n

While RECA did not explicitly come up during a pair of brief speeches delivered by Herrell and Johnson, it\u2019s become a significant campaign issue in the toss-up of New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Herrell recently told Source NM she supports expanding RECA fully and would address it with Johnson after Downwinders joined Vasquez for a campaign event last week.<\/p>\n

Tina Cordova, the founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said that Herrell\u2019s positions on RECA have changed, and if Herrell wants the support of the Downwinders, she would have to do more to champion the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe requested that she get us a face-to-face meeting \u2013 and we\u2019re on the outside, and they\u2019re on the inside,\u201d Cordova said, pointing to the museum up the road.<\/p>\n

At a campaign rally for Vasquez in Albuquerque last week, leaders in the Democratic party publicly promised to pass RECA if they take the majority in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, that\u2019s a safety net,\u201d Cordova said.<\/p>\n

Both Johnson and Herrell declined to take questions at the campaign event on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Source NM<\/a> is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Meaders traveled from Albuquerque to attend Wednesday\u2019s protest. Danielle Prokop\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

candidates for Congressional District 2 support full expansion of the compensation program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[896,28,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79186,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007\/revisions\/79186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26007"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}