Congress plans to turn off the funding faucet for downwind cancer victims of atomic bomb testing, but Rep. Karen Shepherd, R-Utah, wants to delay disconnecting the pipeline.
She asked a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday not to be too hasty with its announced plans to stop giving money in 1995 to a trust fund that compensates downwinders.The subcommittee has said that enough money is already in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund - created by Congress in 1990 - to pay off all the valid claims that the Justice Department expects to receive.
"Unfortunately, there has recently been much controversy over the number of people who have actually qualified to receive restitution," Shepherd said.
"Of the 3,544 applications submitted as of January this year, 49 percent - or 1,468 individuals - were denied by the Justice Department," she said.
A Deseret News story in January that revealed those statistics also said the Justice Department has paid just over $111 million in claims to 1,549 successful applicants. That is only 55 percent of about $200 million available in the fund.
Frank Krider, a Justice Department attorney who helps oversee the program, previously told the Deseret News, "Some people may have the right cancer but live in the wrong county, or live in the right county but have the wrong cancer. It hurts to deny their claim because they feel it is justified, but you have to enforce the law."
Shepherd said she hopes Congress will soon rectify too-narrow restrictions on payments and urged the panel to ensure "the money won't run out until every single person who has been affected by this tragedy has been appropriately compensated."
She added, "I urge the subcommittee to keep in mind how important it is to provide some sense of just compensation for the unknowing victims of the Cold War-spurred nuclear testing."
The compensation program was pushed through Congress by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah - who said that many restrictions they personally opposed had to be added to achieve its passage.
Victims of some types of cancer who lived in certain counties that were downwind of open-air atomic tests are eligible for $50,000.
Uranium miners - whom the government knew were at risk for cancer but did not tell them - are eligible for $100,000. Nevada Test Site workers are eligible for $75,000.