Guam’s push for downwinders hits another roadblock; PARS mulls lawsuit against the feds

Robert Celestial

By Jayvee Vallejera

A fresh try to have Guam residents compensated after being exposed to radioactive fallout from decades ago has hit another brick wall, this time in a vain attempt to insert a provision on military financial support for Guam’s “downwinders.”

Robert Celestial, president of the Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors, said Guam Del. James Moylan tried to have Guam’s compensation included in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, but the effort proved fruitless.

PARS will have a public presentation at the Guam Museum on Sept. 20 to discuss the island's repeatedly ignored plea for radiation exposure compensation.

From there, he said, PARS will assess the option of suing the federal government.

“On Monday, the Rules Committee in the NDAA didn't accept any amendments.

We tried to put in an amendment for Guam, but it failed. Congressman Moylan was not successful in getting the amendment in, so it's dead. We can't get it into the NDAA,” he said.

This further narrows the options available to Guam residents who want to be compensated after being exposed to radiation poisoning decades ago.

Celestial said PARS has been looking at having a standalone bill specific to Guam be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Guam could also form a coalition with the other states that were also excluded from the reauthorized Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Besides Guam, parts of Arizona, Nevada, Montana and Colorado were also excluded.

If all else fails, there’s the courts.

Celestial said this option—which he believes is still too early—is not off the table.

RECA, which compensates people who have contracted cancer and other diseases due to exposure to atomic bomb tests, was supposed to expire in July 2024. It was reauthorized last July for another two years.

Although Guam was initially included in the RECA reauthorization bill, it was not in the final version that became law on July 4.

When asked why, Celestial said he doesn’t know and the U.S. Congress did not explain why.

“Congress has no excuse. They won’t answer that question,” he added.

Celestial said they tried getting Guam included through the U.S. House, “but Congressman Moylan wasn't successful in getting it in the House. Right now, everything is dead. We have to regroup and find another avenue for how we're going to get it in,” he said.

The U.S. military detonated 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands, some 1,300 miles southeast of Guam, from 1946 to 1962.

PARS is pushing for Guam’s inclusion in RECA as “downwinders”—the term for people who were exposed to nuclear fallout from these tests.

Above all things, Celestial would like to know why Guam keeps getting snubbed.

Besides the fact that Guam does not have a voting member in the U.S. Congress, he said there has not been any explanation why Guam is not making any headway in this campaign.

“We want to know why we were excluded because there was no reason why,” he said.

If it’s evidence they want, Celestial said Guam has scientific evidence from the National Academy of Science recommending that Guam be included in RECA.

It’s not even the amount of money involved.

Celestial pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office had initially computed Guam’s claims at $650 million, which later went down to $450 million.

He said Guam’s CBO score was the lowest compared to other states. Missouri’s CBO score was $107 billion. Idaho had a $104 billion CBO score.

“Even though we asked them why we're excluded, they have no answer,” Celestial added. “We had everything in there, and there was no reason why they should exclude Guam, other than the fact that either they were ignorant of the fact, or they didn't understand. I have no idea. I can't make a guess. Nobody wants to come forward and say because of these reasons."

Having those reasons said out loud would give Guam traction on how to resolve the issue, he said. That way, he and other advocates could go back to Congress and say, “Here are the answers to your questions.”

Speaking on the podcast “The News In You” in an episode titled “Guam: America’s Forgotten Nuclear Victims,” Celestial said the U.S. military kept it a secret that radioactive fallout from atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands was raining down on Guam decades ago.

He said declassified documents have confirmed that Guam was exposed to radiation and these findings were confirmed by the National Academy of Science.

When Guam’s inclusion in RECA first failed in the U.S. Senate, PARS tried to go through the U.S. House.

“Moylan told us in a meeting that Speaker (Mike) Johnson was going to do that, and it didn't happen, so that basically was the case. We were told, uh, you know, false information,” he added.

When asked how many people in Guam are affected by this issue, Celestial said they have no accurate count because the place where a patient is diagnosed with cancer is the one that gets the “credit,” so to speak.

“Every time an individual gets sent to the [United] States or to the Philippines, we don't get the count, because when they're diagnosed in the States, that state gets the number,” he said.

If a patient is referred to California, Texas or North Carolina and is then diagnosed with cancer there, that patient is counted among those states’ cancer numbers.

This creates a host of complications for Guam, as it artificially lowers the U.S. territory’s cancer numbers and makes it appear as if Guam’s cancer numbers are low.

“Every time I explain all these things, especially when I'm in Congress, they say, ‘Oh, your cancer rates are low.’ No, it's not. It's not low. It's just that it's not counted correctly,” he added.

The new law expanded RECA coverage to include Idaho, additional counties in Arizona, Nevada, and certain areas in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska that were exposed to nuclear waste.

Eligible individuals will be able to receive up to $100,000. If the eligible person has already passed away, their families may file a claim for up to $25,000.

PARS has been advocating for Guam’s inclusion in RECA for nearly two decades now.

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