Nuclear trust fund is nearly dry

To show the effects of IOUs on claimants, Hatch invited Rita Torres of Surprise, Ariz., to testify about how her father, Joe Torres of Monticello, Utah, received an IOU and never was paid before he died in 2001 from cancer resulting from his work as a uranium miner.

She read a letter he wrote to Bush before he died that said, "Approving a program then not funding it is sort of like offering help and leaving town. It just isn't right. . . . It is hard to fight cancer and fight the government."

Hatch said, "I do not want to put RECA claimants through that again, and I will fight tooth and nail for the funding to make RECA whole again."

He also said he will fight to expand the program. He said it is unfair that downwinders receive only $50,000 — but other legislation allowed $75,000 for those who participated at the Nevada Test Site, and $150,000 plus medical expenses for workers at Energy Department atomic processing plants.

He said, "I do not understand this inequity and will not rest until it is addressed."

Agreeing was witness Helen Bandley Houghton of San Antonio, who grew up in Richfield, Utah, and was paid $50,000 for colon cancer she suffered from upwind tests.

"I cannot understand why the government would decide that some people would get $150,000 plus lifetime medical benefits, and the others would not only lose two and three members in a family, but their homes, and leave their families with medical bills that seem insurmountable," she said.

Hatch also noted that because of previous legislation, the National Research Council is reviewing scientific data to see if radiation may have caused more types of cancer than are currently eligible for compensation, and to recommend possible expansion.

A report on that is due next June. As part of that research, the NRC and the Department of Health and Human Services are holding a hearing in Salt Lake City next week to hear from people and groups who feel illnesses they suffer should be eligible for compensation, but now are not.

Bucholtz said the RECA program has paid $771 million in compensation through the years to 11,700 claimants. He said the Justice Department has denied 5,600 claims, and about 2,500 claims are still pending.

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