Compensation for civilians exposed to ionizing radiation by nuclear weapons production and testing sites

Before the United States military used nuclear weapons against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they built and tested them on American soil. The Manhattan Project was spread across the country with facilities at Hanford, Washington; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and eventually the Trinity test site in south central New Mexico. Downwind communities were neither protected nor informed of airborne radiation releases from these facilities.

This failure to inform and protect continued throughout the ensuing decades of the Cold War as uranium mining, production, and testing contaminated soil, air, and groundwater. Testing at the Nevada Test site lasted from 1951-1992. The United States conducted testing in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958. Many mining and production facilities continue to be active and cleanup at closed facilities is incomplete. Even today, generations later, we see the devastating health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation released from these facilities.

In 1990, The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) began compensating and offering health care to exposed people within a few of these communities. Without Congressional action, RECA will sunset in 2022. Congress should renew RECA to continue protecting these very vulnerable groups; strengthen RECA to offer more comprehensive and accessible compensation; and expand RECA to include the communities currently left out.

Call on your members of Congress to cosponsor H.R. 3783 and S. 947, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019, to extend and expand RECA.

Never resume nuclear testing

There is no benefit to testing and decades of evidence of the harm. With communities around the world still recovering from the nuclear tests of the past 75 years, we must continue the US commitment to the global testing moratorium.

Call on your members of Congress to cosponsor S.3886, to place a legal prohibition on the use of funds to resume nuclear weapons testing.

New START

75 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are less than one year away from losing the last constraints between Russia and the United States, the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals. We dishonor victims when we willfully walk away from treaties designed to rid the world of the weapons used to harm them.

Call on your members of Congress to cosponsor H.R. 2529/ S. 2394 the Richard G. Lugar and Ellen O. Tauscher Act to Maintain Limits on Russian Nuclear Forces, to extend the New START Treaty.

No First Use

Nuclear weapons kill innocent people. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we saw the terrible consequences of a nuclear attack. We have yet to see the consequences of a two-sided nuclear war. To reduce that risk, the United States should pledge to the world that we would never use nuclear weapons first in a conflict ever again.

Call on your members of Congress to support the No First Use Act, H.R. 921/ S. 272.

Restore Medicaid to Citizens from the Marshall Islands and other Compact of Free Association (COFA) States

The United States conducted nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958, and the islands have seen some of the worst effects of nuclear weapons since 1945. Many Marshallese, including those who have moved to the United States, suffer from long-term negative health effects associated with this testing. People from the Marshall Islands and other COFA states were covered under Medicaid until 1996, when their access was stripped under a major welfare reform act. Congress must restore access to Medicaid now so the victims of U.S. nuclear testing can be treated for those negative health effects.

Call on your members of Congress to cosponsor H.R.4821/ S.2218 the Covering our FAS Allies Act.

Sole Authority

The 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reminds us of the human cost of the use of nuclear weapons. No one person should have sole authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. Right now, a sitting U.S. president can unilaterally order a nuclear strike, and in a matter of minutes, we would have nuclear war. It’s time to end U.S. presidential sole authority, for good.

Take action and join the call to end sole authority. Learn more about H.R. 669/ S. 200 the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2019. 

Stop Investing in a New Nuclear Arms Race

In the last 75 years, the United States has spent trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons. Over the next 30 years, we’ve already committed to $1.7 trillion more. That’s enough to eliminate all student debt in America. We should be investing in human health and prosperity—not in human destruction.

Call on your members of Congress to rein in nuclear spending on this year’s budget, and all the budgets to come.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, survivors of the attacks in Japan as well as nuclear testing in the United States and around the world are asking governments to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the nuclear ban, which would prohibit the use of nuclear weapons in order to achieve a healthier, safer and more peaceful future.

Call on your members of Congress to support H.R. 302, the Embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.