Radiation survivors advocate bats for CNMI 's inclusion in reparation bill
- Admin
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
By Jayvee Vallejera
The Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors has endorsed the Northern Mariana Islands' inclusion in a fresh proposal to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program.
The CNMI-based Matua Council for Native Chamorro Advancement thanked PARS for including the Northern Mariana Islands in its long fight for justice, saying it would ensure parity for all Pacific radiation survivors.
Robert Celestial, PARS president, wrote to Guam Del. James Moylan, proposing to add the CNMI in his H.R. 7672, the “Parity for Pacific Radiation Survivors Act," which was introduced in February.
“Our ancestors have left us a legacy that we, the people of the Mariana Islands, are one family," said Celestial, a U.S. Army veteran.
The bill, the latest in a series of attempts to include Guam in the RECA program, would expand the eligibility and extend the compensation to residents of the territory who were physically present on island for a period of at least one year from July 1, 1946, to Nov. 21, 1992; or for the period beginning on April 25, 1962, and ending on Nov. 6, 1962.
H.R. 7672 would also extend to eligible members of the U.S. armed forces who participated on-site in the radiological cleanup of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands between May 1, 1977 and May 31, 1980.
The RECA program gives partial restitution to those whose health may have been harmed by their exposure to nuclear fallout and toxic waste.
Celestial had worked for decades with partners and friends from many states and toxic waste communities across the United States to have Guam included in RECA.
Guam's inclusion in the RECA program has repeatedly been introduced in the U.S. Congress, but the proposal never reached the finish line.
RECA was reauthorized in July last year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but
Guam was chopped off from the expanded list of eligible jurisdictions. The expanded program includes New Mexico, Idaho and Utah.
PARS asked Moylan to amend his proposed bill to classify the CNMI as a “downwinder” and make it eligible to receive compensation. Downwinders are communities that were exposed to radioactive contamination or nuclear fallout from nuclear weapons testing.
In a letter to Celestial, the Matua Council claimed the CNMI was not included in Moylan’s original H.R. 7672 because of “non-responsiveness” from the CNMI delegate’s office.
CNMI Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds has not responded to the Pacific Island Times' request for comment.
Celestial said including the CNMI in H.R. 7672 is another opportunity “to correct the injustice” made to the people of Guam and the CNMI.
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Matua Council president Liana M.S. Hofschneider expressed hope for a positive response from Moylan's office.
In 2005, Guam celebrated the National Research Council’s report declaring the territory’s eligibility for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments program.
“Guam did receive measurable fallout from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific between 1946 and 1958,” read the council’s report, which recommended that people living on island during that period be compensated under RECA “in a way similar to that of persons considered to be downwinders.”
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