Congressman Cohen Presides at Hearing on the Need to Expand Eligibility Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a hearing on "the Need to Expand Eligibility Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act." The hearing explored the impact of downwind and other radiation exposure from nuclear bomb testing and uranium mining and other uranium workers during the Second World War and during the Cold War, and the need to compensate the many victims not currently eligible under RECA.

During his opening statement, Congressman Cohen said:

"Starting in the 1940's with the development of the atom bomb during World War II and spurred on by the ensuing Cold War with the former Soviet Union, the U.S. government embarked on a decades-long program of nuclear weapons development...The federal government in many ways failed to adequately protect or warn people about the potential hazards associated with its atomic weapons development…Congress passed RECA over thirty years ago to acknowledge that fact, as well as the fact that while the whole country may have benefited from the purported security resulting from the development of atomic weapons, certain individuals and communities disproportionately bore most of the harms and risks that came with it."

See Congressman Cohen's entire opening statement here and his questioning of expert witnesses here.

Witnesses at today's hearing were:

• Ms. Lilly Adams
  Independent Consultant Specializing in Nuclear Weapons Issues;
• Ms. Jean Bishop
  Supervisor District 4, Mohave County, Arizona;
• Ms. Tina Cordova
  Co-Founder, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium;
• The Honorable Ben Ray Lujan
  United States Senator, New Mexico;
• Mr. Jonathan Nez
  President of the Navajo Nation;
• The Honorable Greg Stanton
  Member of Congress, Arizona-09; and
• Mr. Scott D. Szymendera
  Analyst in Disability Policy, Congressional Research Service.