Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this weekend, Oppenheimer is expected to win multiple Oscars. In the film, we watched the pain and guilt in J.R. Oppenheimer's face when he heard what the atomic bomb did to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What the film didn't show--and the story that remains untold--is how thousands of New Mexican families were exposed to harmful amounts of radiation. We didn't see how radioactive ash rained down on children, families, and farms from that first atomic bomb tested in New Mexico. We didn't see the tears and pain as those families saw their loved ones die of cancers and rare diseases tied to radiation exposure. So I present this film one more award: the award for the most incomplete story--for the missing, the countless American lives lost as a result of the Trinity test. Congress can write a better ending to this story. A bipartisan coalition of Senators and Representatives have amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which would finally compensate New Mexico downwinders and uranium workers, as well as workers in Missouri, Alaska, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and downwinders in other States who were left out of that original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Earlier this year, these amendments were included in the NDAA as passed by the Senate. Sadly, Republican leadership for some inexplicable reason stripped these amendments from the final NDAA. But today, soon, Congress can write a happier ending.…”