Jun. 7—Advocates for New Mexico downwinders and former uranium miners minced no words this week about House leadership not holding a vote to extend a law that provides compensation to people sickened by Cold War-era nuclear testing and production.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was set to expire Friday.

“Shame on Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans for letting RECA expire,” U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, said in a statement. “The Tularosa downwinders and uranium miners have experienced the real-life costs of radiation exposure for generations. They need RECA expanded now — not a lecture on the ‘costs’ of expansion from heartless House Republicans. This isn’t over.”

New Mexico is among the states ineligible to receive federal compensation for exposure to radioactive fallout from nuclear tests — including the atomic bomb detonated at Trinity Site in Southern New Mexico during the Manhattan Project — and uranium mining after 1971.

Only parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah now qualify for compensation.

The U.S. Senate in March passed a bill by a vote of 69-30 to extend compensation to residents in New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Guam. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, sponsored the bill along with Republican Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Josh Hawley of Missouri. The House, however, has not voted on it due to Republican concerns about the cost of the program; Johnson has suggested extending the current program rather than expanding it.

A group of downwinders, former uranium workers and family members, including some from New Mexico, went to Washington in May to urge Johnson to call a vote on the bipartisan bill.

“I am disappointed that Speaker Johnson sent the House home without taking action on RECA before the sunset date, putting the coverage and compensation of American families at risk,” Luján said in a statement Friday. “Advocates from communities nationwide traveled to Washington to make their voices heard, share their painful stories, and fight for this program.”

He added, “The fight is not over. I remain committed to providing long-overdue justice to victims and survivors and passing legislation to extend and expand RECA.”

Justin Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation’s Washington office, said Johnson “has not only betrayed our veterans, blue-collar uranium miners and families who were unwitting victims of our nation’s nuclear weapons program, but has profoundly wronged the Navajo people who have given so much to this country.

“The government made a sacred promise to care for those harmed by its nuclear actions,” he continued. “By abandoning this commitment, Speaker Johnson has chosen to value dollars and cents over the lives and well-being of our people.”

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, noted RECA renewal has been a bipartisan matter for decades until now.

“Congress has always been able to come together and do what is right and necessary to take care of the people who were made sick by our country’s nuclear weapons program,” she said. “Today, improving RECA should not be about politics, parties, or cost. It should be about taking care of the American Citizens — including children — that our government put at tremendous risk in service of our national security.”