Downwinders may get IOUs

WASHINGTON — Downwind cancer victims of atomic testing who qualify for federal compensation may soon receive IOUs instead of money, due in part to changes enacted by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Hatch in 2000 added more illnesses to the list of what qualifies for payments and made applications easier to file and claims easier to prove. The result is far more people are filing claims than expected.

Funding that Congress approved in 2001 was expected to cover all claims for 10 years. But shortfalls are expected to begin this year and last through 2007 unless Congress fixes the problem, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress.

In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to pay downwinders in some areas — primarily southern Utah — who contracted some types of cancer $50,000 in compensation. And to pay uranium miners, who were never told of radiation danger known by the government, $100,000 (an amount later amended to $150,000).

After a Deseret News series showed that the law had serious problems — often denying claims because people had the "wrong" type of cancer or lived a few miles in the "wrong" direction or at the "wrong" time — and made proving claims difficult, Hatch enacted amendments in 2000 to solve some of those problems.

Initially, so many extra people filed claims that the compensation fund ran out of money in 2000 and 2001. Congress had to appropriate $84 million in 2001 to cover IOUs.

In an effort to prevent IOUs from ever being sent again, Congress in the 2001 Defense Appropriations Act set aside $655 million over 10 years to cover such claims. It figured that would be more than sufficient. The GAO says it isn't, at least not with the varying year-to-year limits Congress included.

For example, the law allowed the Justice Department to spend up to $172 million on compensation payments in 2002. It used every cent and barely covered the claims approved.

This year, the law allows the Justice Department to spend up to $143 million on claims. The GAO figures that will fall short by $44 million.

It expects another $21 million shortfall in 2004, a $22 million shortfall in 2005, a $9 million shortfall in 2006 and a $5 million shortfall in 2007.