WASHINGTON -- A program to compensate downwind cancer victims of atomic testing may soon run out of money. That in turn may wound new efforts to expand payments to now-excluded groups.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., figures only enough is available to fund the program until June -- which is months before the federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.He says the program will fall $7.25 million short of what it needs to pay all valid claims expected this year -- forcing victims to wait until the next fiscal year for promised money.
But more trouble looms then, too.
Domenici says Clinton's 2001 budget request for that Justice Department program is only $13.7 million. That is $2.3 million less than it needs for claims expected that year, not counting any backlog from this year.
In short, the program could soon be nearly $10 million in the hole -- and victims of atomic tests could be suffering yet another humiliation from the government that injured and killed them while insisting that fallout from bombs was safe.
"Congress and the American people need to know why we're in this situation and how the Justice Department expects to resolve it," Domenici said. He has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to explain it and present a plan on how to make ends meet.
He's also furious that the administration has not sought a supplemental appropriation for money needed this year -- and said he is pursuing lining up congressional support for it on his own. He will also try to increase 2001 appropriations for the program.
All of that creates another big problem for downwinders.
The funding shortages and fights are coming just as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is trying to expand the compensation program. But if the administration is having problems funding a smaller program now, that could nix expanding it into a bigger one.
Hatch and former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah, passed legislation in 1990 to pay $50,000 to residents in some fallout areas who developed certain types of cancer; $75,000 for cancer victims who worked at the Nevada Test Site; and $100,000 for uranium miners -- who were not told by the government that it knew most of them would develop lung cancer.
That program was an imperfect political compromise. It covered far fewer cancer types than Hatch wanted. It also covered only a small area mostly in southern Utah (even though areas such as Salt Lake County often received higher radiation doses).
Hatch made those compromises to win enough votes to pass a program, any program. Others insisted on them in part to hold down costs, and in part because scientific ties to radiation were then weak for other types of cancer and geographic areas.
As a result, only about half of the people who have applied for compensation have received it -- finding they had the wrong type of cancer, lived a few miles the wrong way, were too old or young when exposed or lacked evidence to prove their claims.
Victims groups say tens of thousands more people also believe they are victims but didn't even bother to apply for compensation because they knew they couldn't qualify.
After the Deseret News ran a series looking at problems with the compensation program, Hatch last year pushed a bill to add coverage for more types of cancer that more recent studies have said could be caused by radiation exposure.
He pushed it quietly, bringing it up for a quick voice vote on the Senate floor in the rush of the final days of the session without hearings and with little floor debate.
He did that in part because some others want additional expansions that could kill everything because of the cost. For example, a recent National Cancer Institute study said every county in the nation was hit by at least some radiation from the tests. Adding even a portion of those most heavily hit would be vastly expensive.
Despite current funding problems, Hatch says he will continue to push his bill for expansion. "We'll do that first, and then we'll fight for the funding later in the annual appropriations bills," he said.
Unless he wins, America is truly apologizing only to a few victims -- and making even them wait extra time for compensation that may not come at all. Downwinders deserve better for their involuntary -- and now continuing -- sacrifice.
Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson can be reached by e-mail at leed@dgs.dgsys.com