Support Nuclear Frontline Communities in COVID-19 Economic Relief Funding

United States Senate

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer,

As Congress continues to allocate crucial economic relief funding to communities in need, we write to urge you to include provisions for those who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of past and ongoing radiation exposure linked to nuclear weapons activities. We know that a key to reducing the spread of COVID-19 is ensuring that those at highest risk have access to the medical care they need.U.S. nuclear weapons activities such as uranium mining, weapons production, and atmospheric nuclear testing exposed many individuals and communities in the United States to radiation and other toxic chemicals. These exposed populations are disproportionately Indigenous, people of color, veterans, low-income, and/or from rural areas, and often face significant barriers to receiving adequate health care. Many in these communities are now at greater risk from COVID-19 due to underlying factors including their radiation exposure, air, soil, and water pollution, poverty, poor nutrition, etc. These factors can result in underlying health conditions and weakened immune systems.

Those who sacrificed for our country’s national security, in some cases unknowingly, should not have to doubly fear this crisis. We call for the inclusion of provisions in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments (H.R. 3783 and S. 947) and the inclusion of Medicaid for COFA communities, as outlined in the Covering our FAS Allies Act (H.R. 4821 and S. 2218), both bipartisan bills, in the next stimulus package.

Include Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments in Stimulus Bills
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) of 1990 was established to help offset some of the health care costs that burden these affected groups. RECA has two shortcomings that you have the power to correct in the coming days: 1) Without Congressional action RECA will expire in 2022; 2) RECA does not cover everyone who was impacted by U.S. nuclear weapon development. Groups currently excluded include those living downwind of the first atomic test in 1945 at Trinity in New Mexico, additional downwinders of the Nevada Test Site, veterans who cleaned up radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands, residents in Guam, uranium workers past 1971, and civilians downwind of nuclear production sites.

RECA is crucial for the health and financial well-being of these communities, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Recent studies show that those with cancers, including lung cancers, are up to three times as likely to die of COVID-19 than those without cancer. Uranium miners are especially susceptible to lung cancer, including those from the Navajo Nation. Today, the Navajo Nation and Indigenous communities in general are facing unique challenges in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tina Cordova, a downwinder of the Trinity Test and co-founder of Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium adds, “Many of us live in fear of the virus now not only because it is highly infectious and deadly to most but because we also know we are highly susceptible to getting the virus and dying from it due to our underlying health issues as a result of being exposed to radiation. Once you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and been through the radiation and chemotherapy necessary to save your life you know your immune system has been compromised.”We support the provisions in H.R. 3783, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019, and the similar bipartisan S. 947 in the Senate. We call to include the full provisions of these combined bills in any upcoming stimulus packages.

Include Medicaid for COFA Communities in Stimulus Bills
The Compacts of Free Association (COFA) are critical U.S. national security and economic agreements with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Under these agreements, citizens of these countries may travel to, live, and work in the United States in exchange for the U.S. military’s exclusive use of and access to these nation’s lands, airspace, and waters.

COFA citizens in the United States originally had access to Medicaid. However, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 unintentionally stripped COFA communities living in the United States of their eligibility for most means-tested federal benefits, including Medicaid.

As a result, over 61,000 COFA individuals and families living in the United States have struggled to access essential medical care. Many face serious chronic conditions and health disparities, due to dependency on the United States, as well as the effects of military activity in the region, including 67 above-ground nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946 – 1962. Marshallese Elder Erine Jitiam, who survived this testing and now lives in the United States shares: “There were a lot of deaths because of the fallout powder on Enewetak and Bikini…This is why we need the American’s help. Because the people continue to suffer from the bomb testings.”

The COVID-19 pandemic only heightens the risks these communities face through lack of care, including access to COVID-19 testing. Even before the pandemic, studies are showing that in COFA communities, higher death rates are associated with the loss of Medicaid after 1996. Today, data shows that Pacific Islanders in the United States, including the Marshallese, have a COVID-19 infection rate two to three times higher than average. In addition, many Marshallese community members have lost their jobs in the economic recession, meaning they have also lost employer-provided health insurance.

Due to these heightened risk factors, we must ensure these communities have the care they need during the COVID-19 crisis. We call for future stimulus packages to include provisions to reinstate Medicaid for COFA residents, and to extend and expand RECA, as laid out in H.R. 3783, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019.

See the letter in a PDF here.

Sincerely,