Tom Udall: “I think this is an excellent motion to instruct, and one of the things this motion does is seek to remedy a long overdue…”

“I think this is an excellent motion to instruct, and one of the things this motion does is seek to remedy a long overdue injustice. U.S. Citizens who went to work in uranium mines and downwinders who lived below atomic bomb explosions have suffered severely at the hands of the United States Government. Government doctors knew they were in danger. The Atomic Energy Commission knew they were in danger. But nobody told them, when they were working in the mines, the mines were dirty and they were going to get lung cancer. Nobody told the people living downwind that they were in danger. These victims had to go to court to try to seek justice. And they lost in the courts, and the courts came back and said, this situation cries out for justice. Finally, in 1990, the U.S. Congress acted and corrected that injustice and said compensation should be paid and a national apology be given to these individuals. Very few occasions in our Nation's industry has that occurred. Many of these victims are Navajo Indians who live in the remotest part of the country. They knew nothing of the dangers, and they are entitled to this compensation. But guess what, my colleagues, the government is out of money. The government account is empty, and we are issuing IOUs to those people. We are issuing IOUs to elderly Navajo widows who have large families.”