After years battling to extend and expand the flawed 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), downwinders have finally claimed a victory with all of Utah, New Mexico, Idaho and Mohave County, Arizona, added to the program. The expansion also includes new categories of uranium workers and a handful of communities across the country contaminated by radioactive waste from weapons production and storage. The expansion was a last-minute addition to the federal budget bill signed into law on July 4—the controversial bill that cut Medicaid and scores of other programs benefitting Americans.

For decades, many downwinders exposed to radiation have been ignored and denied help. But while the recent expansion is overdue and could eventually provide assistance to thousands of survivors of nuc

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