Downwinders

As cancer-stricken American citizens in New Mexico and across the West wait for long-overdue justice, Democrats in Congress continue to stall life-saving compensation for the very people harmed by their own government’s nuclear testing during the mid-1940s— all while fast-tracking benefits and protections for criminal illegal aliens paid for exclusively by the American taxpayer.

Senate Republicans have stepped up where Democrats failed, passing a sweeping tax and spending package — dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” — that includes a long-fought expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). This program, which expired over a year ago thanks to congressional inaction, provides financial relief to those exposed to deadly radiation during the U.S. government’s atomic testing and uranium mining efforts.

The bill, if passed by the House, would finally extend compensation to downwinders in New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho — people who were left out of the original RECA coverage despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they were blanketed in fallout from Cold War-era nuclear explosions. It also adds coverage for communities in Missouri, Tennessee, Alaska, and Kentucky affected by the Manhattan Project.

“This is generational legislation for Missouri and will finally deliver justice for survivors in the St. Louis region,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who championed the provision. “I call on the House to quickly pass this legislation and send it to President Trump’s desk.”

The updated bill raises the compensation amount to $100,000, loosens residency requirements, and extends eligibility for uranium workers across 11 states — including New Mexico. RECA had previously offered only $50,000 to $75,000 and restricted access to a small handful of counties, leaving thousands of Americans with no help as they battled radiation-linked diseases.

It’s a monumental shift — but one that Democrats in the House are once again threatening to derail.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM), instead of applauding this long-overdue relief for her own constituents, bizarrely took a swipe at House Republicans for allowing the program to lapse in the first place — conveniently ignoring that the entirely Democrat New Mexico delegation, despite years of control, failed to pass an expansion. “While the broader Billionaires Budget Bill is deeply harmful in many ways,” she scoffed, “we are glad some Republicans are finally recognizing the value of RECA.”

This kind of callous rhetoric insults the intelligence — and the suffering — of downwinders across New Mexico. These are not wealthy elites or partisan activists. They are ordinary families who were poisoned by their own government and then abandoned by elected officials too busy pandering to illegal immigrants and radical special interests.

As open-border Democrats fight to fund hotel stays, legal aid, and health care for criminal aliens, they simultaneously claim RECA’s $7.7 billion price tag is just too much to bear. Meanwhile, actual American citizens — veterans, ranchers, Navajo uranium workers, and children born in the radioactive shadow of nuclear blasts — continue to die waiting for relief.

RECA was never a partisan issue. It’s about righting a historical wrong. And yet, it has been Republicans — not Democrats — who finally took meaningful action to make these Americans whole.

People like far-left Rep. Gabe Vasquez used the Downwinders as political fodder during campaign season, but now, while he could be the difference to making them whole again, the entire Democrat caucus in the U.S. House — including him — have vowed to reject compensating them by voting against the bill.

The House now holds the key. Will Democrats finally put Americans first — or will they once again prioritize lawbreakers over the law-abiding?