President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners and some people downwind of the test sites.
The extension signed into law Tuesday allows these people two more years to apply for a one-time cash payment. Without the extension, approved by the House and Senate in May, RECA would have ended July 11.
RECA, administered by the Department of Justice, is mandatory spending for the federal government. Compensation is capped at $100,000 per person. Since 1990, the program has paid out about $2.3 billion to some 37,740 claimants. Most of those, more than 60%, were downwinders, according to Justice data compiled by the Congressional Research Service.
Lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill are working on broader RECA reforms, including a 20-year extension, expansion of eligibility and an increase in compensation to those who qualify.
Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Ida.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) are cooperating on the Senate’s version of the bill, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2021. The House’s version, sponsored by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), passed easily out of that chamber’s Judiciary Committee in December but has seen no action since.
