Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Host you can also send us a text at 2027488003. Be sure to send your first name and city, state. We are also on facebook and on x. Before we take calls look at this. This is from yesterday during debate over the defense funding on the house floor. Rules Committee Ranking member jim mcgovern sharply criticized republicans over risking a potential Government Shutdown and your response from rules Committee Chair tom cole. Heres a portion. What the hell is going on in your conference. Truth is under speaker mccarthys weak leadership this republican majority is a total failure. An unmitigated disaster. Those arent even my words, thats what one of your own members said on tv a you few nights ago about the process playing out in this chamber right now. First we have this absurd nonbinding resolution condemning the governor of new mexico we are trying to keep our constituents safe from gun violence. Just to explain to folks who may be watching, this resolution does nothing. Not a thing. Its a press release. Doesnt go to the senate, doesnt go to the president t does nothing. We are doing that we are doing nothing right now to avert a Government Shutdown. This place is becoming a chamber where we debate trivial issues passionately and important ones not atal. I agree with Government Shutdowns. I do not think its an appropriate tactic and hope we are able to avoid one. There will be an hospital time when we discuss with our friends how to do that. We need a negotiating position. We are working toward that. And we will get there. I am well aware we have a democratic senate. This house has done wonderful work on things like h. R. 1, to deal with energy. H. R. 2, to deal with our border. We send them over there and they are never picked up. Never heard of again unless we snatch pieces out of them here and there and attach them to one of these broader agreements as we were able to do in the debt ceiling crisis over permitting of facilities, both for renewable and nonrenewable energy. Again, difficult legislative process and i agree its going to be complicated. Our goal is to get to the same place. Host that was on the house floor yesterday. We are in open forum. The numbers are on your screen. Just one news i want to make sure you are aware of. Here is nbc news rupert murdock, conservative media titan to step down as chairman of fox corp, news corp. Marks the end of one of the most storied and controversial careers in media. His son will take over. Rupert is 92. Well go to your calls now. Rick in north carolina, a republican. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I want to thank cspan and fox for putting the news out for people to hear. My question to democrats is, do you think president z will pardon hunter biden . Host athens, georgia, independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I love cspan. Very quickly. I wanted to call in monday night. Host i dont know the question answer to the question. But i will ask. If the 30 days only applies to washington, journal, or to all calling in. Go ahead. Caller sounds good. Host well let you know. Caller my listen, guys, when you call in. It isnt just me. Im embarrassed when i call in here in the past and im sounding erratic, and uninformed, im sounding emotions. This is washington journal. This is where we watch our government, callers. I know you are excited. I know you are enthralled with our wonderful democracy. But you got to tone it down, calm down. And be thoughtful. Thank you so much. Host i do have an answer for you. It does apply to all calls. Any call in to cspan has to be after 30 days, ok. Caller thanks so much. Host ed in a, chicago, illinois, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host whats on your mind . Caller i would like to make a statement. If the republicans shut down our government, this is a warning to them, we will shut them down in the next election. Thats all i have to say. Thank you for taking my call. Host stan, grants pass, oregon, republican. Good morning. Caller. I want to tell pedro that i said the president having a phone is contact. And the pen is in executive orders. That has caused all the federal government 33 trillion in debt. Thats way too much. Im concerned about the fires that are going on go on every year. The government in 1972 was not appropriating the funds to take care of the goods. They dont care about it, in my opinion. We need to get the fires taken care of. They need to have a Smoke Jumpers in the local area because it was 71 million part of the fire that started in the county. They would be on it. It would have blew up. And it affects the weather. Those fires are going, it affects the weather. There was a fire that had a funnel going straight up. Im glad that didnt take off. Because it might have went 200 miles. Fires go quick. Government needs to get on the land and get all the people out of the offices. Host got it. Lets talk to bernard in elk grove, california, independent. Good morning. Caller thank you. You are doing a wonderful job. Standing your ground. Great job. I wanted to speak to these people charging donald trump for the things hes done. They have to do it because, you know, the things that hes done, you know, on the insurrection stuff. Hes doing it again in real time. They have to hold him accountable for that stuff. And then he was on meet the press and says, hey, you know what. It was me. It was my decision. And i know his counsel and coconspirators were like, hey, shut up, man. But he cant, you know. He just cant. You know, then she asked him, she says, well he said, well, nancy pelosi didnt send the national guard, 300 troops, whatever. She said to him, who did you call . Who did you call . He says, hey, im not going to tell you. Im not going to tell you nothing. And then shes like, well, you ought here shes thinking, you out here telling Everything Else, and telling on everybody. Why not tell on that . He shut down. This guy, he just has if he loses the election, its going hes going to do it again, thats just what he does. He has to be held accountable. I dont know where all this stuff is leading. But its an awful situation because him, hes got the Congress Held hostage. The guys pretty good at what hes doing. Hes a p. T. Barnumtype kaeurbg tefrplt hes very effective character. Hes very effective in what hes doing. Everybody has to acknowledge that because its the truth. Thank you. Host nebraska, republican. Good morning. Caller yeah, good morning. Hey. They might as well shut the government down. We dont have a country anymore. That guy coming from ukraine over here telling us how to run our country, and telling us how to spend our money. Whats up with that . Jesus, this country is going to heck. Under the obama administration, ok, obama screwed this country up right when he got in. He screwed it up more when he got out. Thats all and democrats, we want to kill babies . Thats going to win an election. Is that the only thing we got to go on . Our economy is in trouble. Our kids in school are in trouble from the democrats, ok. Its ridiculous what they are doing to our country. Our countrys gone. Shut the border down. Host brenda, bellville, michigan, independent. Next. Caller i would like to know if congress shuts down the government and all the government workers will lose their paychecks for however long they decide to keep it, will Congress Also stop their paychecks . Thats my question. Host i believe they still get paid, brenda. Kyle is in clinton township, michigan, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to talk briefly about i agree with one of the callers who was saying that the republicans have a lot more we as a country have a lot more to worry about than what the republicans are talking about. They are really holding our government hostage for such silly reasons. And they already made an agreement. They already agreed with the democrats on most of these things. And most of these things are to help our economy and make things going and keep the economy going. I also want to briefly touch on how they are handling of things like on workers rights like on the strikes. Im in michigan so i think the u. A. W. Strikes are really, really important. And i think the handling that trump has had on the u. A. W. Strike, hes going there soon, i think next week, to skip on the republican debate. He talks about sean, the president of the u. A. W. , as if hes leading them astray. As if he doesnt represent them. The u. A. W. And auto workers and strikes in general have had such a hot summer, and it is a high, High Percentage of approval rates across the country. I think my response just very different how the two are responding. Its very clear who is on the side of the workers and who is not. Thank you for taking my call. Host just going back to the caller before, brenda, about the congress men and women still getting their paychecks. This is the from angie craigs website. She is from michigan. Who says, representative angie craig introduces mccarthy shutdown act to stop member pay during a Government Shutdown. Under current law, members receive regular paychecks while thousands of federal employees are furloughed without pay. Thats at craig. House. Gov. Walter is next in georgia. Democrat. Hi. Caller hi. I find it kind of odd. The United States, u. K. , and russia all reneged on the agreement that ukraine would be protected off rend nation back in the mid 1990s if they turned in their Nuclear Weapons. We all reneged on that agreement. Now i hear that ukraine is having their hospitals, schools, and apartment complexes bombed, having children abducted from their country by russia. And they are asking for billions of dollars in aid. But the United States people are due to spend about 19 billion on candy and halloween decorations. I hope that karma does not come back and haunt the u. S. As far as the debt crisis. Raise taxes on everyone that is not in poverty. Also cut spending wherever possible. Go up on the tax cap on social security. And have corporations pay their fair share. I think that would solve a lot of problems if you have all hands on deck on the debt crisis. Host thanks it for open forum. Up next on washington journal, mary dickson discusses efforts to expand compensation under the radiation exposure compensation act. That helps americans who have contracted serious diseases, including cancer, due to cold war era Nuclear Testing. Stay with us. Monday, watch cspans new series, in partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. Well feature the federalist, a compilation of essays written in 1787 and 1788 by alexander hamilton, james madison, and john jay. Urging for the ratification of the newly drafted u. S. Constitution. Judge gregory magazine, u. S. Court of appeals for the armed force, and Colleen Sheehan graduate for director of studies, school of civic and economic thought at Arizona State university will be our guests to discuss why the essays are considered one of the most important references for interpreling and understanding the original intent of the constitution. Watch books that shaped america, featuring the federalist, monday, live at 9 00 eastern on cspan, cspan now, our free mobile video app, or online at cspan. Org. Scan the q. R. Code to listen to our companion comcast where you learn more about the authors of the books featured. American history tv saturdays on cspan2. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story. At 9 p. M. Eastern, George Washington university lecturerrer talks about american poverty policy and how the johnson administrations Great Society program sought to provide Economic Security to the poorest americans. And then at 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, a look at how president s are portrayed in film. The White House Historical association and the library of Congress Host the discussion, which included movies such as kisses for my president in 1964, the man in 1972. 1998, deep impact. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2. Find a full schedule on your Program Guide or watch online any time at cspan. Org history. The cspan bookshelf podcast makes it easy for you to listen to all the cspans podcast that feature nonfiction books. So you can discover new authors and ideas. Each week we are making it convenient for you to listen to multiple episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing history, biography, current events, and culture. From the signature programs about books, afterwards, book notes. And q a. Listen to cspans bookshelf podcast feed taeufpltd find the cspan bookshelf podcast feed on the free cspan now mobile video app or where you get your podcast. And our website cspan. Org podcast. A healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. Get informed, straight from the source. On cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Because the opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Eric smith is the associate professor of rhetoric at york college of pennsylvania. He is also the cofounder and coed tore of free black thought. In a news week article professor smith wrote, quote, we hear endlessly about systematic racism, white supremacy, the blackwhite income gap, and police brutality. Unquote. So power ideology has this narrative become, he says, those of us who pose a counter narrative, thats black antiwoke writers, for example, frequently find our words being misconstrued in an effort to stance their impact, unquote. Author and professor eric smith on this episode of book notes plus. Book notes plus is available on the cspan now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcast. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back to washington journal. We are joined by mary dickson. Shes a downwinder and Victim Advocate for talking about the radiation exposure compensation act. Welcome to the program. Guest thank you. A pleasure to be here. Host first explain what is a downwinder, and your personal connection to this. Guest i would love to. A downwinder is someone who lives downwind of the Nevada Nuclear test site. You still th . We having trouble with your signal . Mary . We will work on that. And try to get that back for you here as soon as possible. Take a look at this is from the department of justice website. This is talking about the radiation exposure act, exposure compensation act is called reca and here is a map that i wanted to show you. If you see here the states that are in yellow, these yellow areas are for uranium worker states. So states where there are uranium workers. Those cover colorado, new mexico, arizona, wyoming, south dakota, washington, utah, idaho, north dakota, oregon, and texas. Whats in green is overlapping uranium worker states and downwind counties. Here you can see the blue is the downwind counties. Where you are seeing blue and green are counties covered by downwind. And then the green is overlap. And then if you are to look here, you can see hard to read. Here are the actual counties of downwind areas. It looks like marys back. Are you there . Guest im back. Can you hear me . Host go right ai head. You were talking about downwinders and your personal connection. Guest sure. A downwinder is someone affected by radioactive fallout from Nuclear Testing in the nevada test site. Testing there started in 1951. It lasted until 1992. There were 928 Nuclear Tests there. Those tests would have fallout that went across the country. Carried by the jetstream. The west was heavily, heavily impacted. My state, utah, was heavily impacted. So the fallout would collide with rain, snow, sleet, or hail and fall to the ground. Where it became part of the ecosystem and then became part of what worked its way into our bodies. Its kind of a silent poison that we have stored. I, myself, have Thyroid Cancer when i was in my 20s. I had my thyroid removed. I had lymph nodes removed. Years later i also had other tumors that resulted in a complete hysterectomy. My older sister died at age 46. Leaving three children. My younger sister has stomach cancer. Another has autoimmune disorders. The area we grew up in in salt lake city, we counted 64 people who developed various cancers, tumors, auto immune disorders. And my story is not an unusual one in the west. Especially in the surrounding states. My state. We became what we call casualty to the cold war. We have never been fully compensated. We have suffered. We continue to suffer. I have watched so many people die. I have lost so many people. All the people i worked with in utah on this issue for years. Have all died. Im the only one left. When one of my friends died, she said, i need you to keep doing this work. She said you got better. And i have felt an enormous responsibility all these years, which is why i have been working on this for the last 30, 35 years at least. Host mary, clearly you have suffered as many people have. But how do you know that these horrible diseases are directly linked to those Nuclear Tests that krauseed by those Nuclear Tests . Caused by those Nuclear Tests . Guest thats a good question. Because you can never definitively prove any one cancer was caused by any one thing. The statistical probability is very high. We know from studies conducted by the National Cancer institute in 1997, and this is remember, seven years after reca was established. More evidence keeps coming out. The National Cancer institute did a study of radioactive iodine 131 which causes Thyroid Cancer showing that virtually every county in the u. S. Received some level of fallout. Of course utah and the west almost blacked out. It goes all wait to the east coast and into canada. So they predicted that 212,000 people up to that number would develop Thyroid Cancer or diseases from their exposure to i11 131. There is confidence there thats what caused it. We saw cansers in my area that we had never seen before. There were often no Health Histories with previous generations of those cancers. We have seen that. There have been other studies done. There was a radio biologist at the university of utah of actually measured fallout coming from one test in 1962, and did measurements of milk showing the iodine 131 in the milk and said that 55,000 children in my state, thats just my state, would likely get sick. There were other i dont know if you heard about the baby tooth study. Back in the 1950s will there was a female physician in st. Louis worried about the milk. Thats absorbed by the bones and keeps radiating. She started collecting baby teeth and they ended up with this 35eu7b, donate your teeth to science, that collected about 350,000 baby teeth, which is lost their teeth, not just her area but elsewhere. There is a study being done right now with a gentleman out of the radiation and Public Health project, with Harvard University to look at the Health Impacts of those surviving kids because they kept track of every tooth. Theres been a lot of studies. There was a study out of princeton just this july it was released that mapped where fallout from the very first test showed it went to 46 states. And i have talked to people, i hear stories constantly, heartbreaking stories. I was just in d. C. Lobbying with a lot of these people treated downwinders. There were people who lived by that site, 40 miles away. One gentleman was 40 miles away. He talked about all the people in his family who had cancer. About the babies who would die. The numbers were very high. His church took record of that. I have talked to people around different states who have been affected. People in guam were affected because of our testing in the pacific. Fallout has lethal, lethal consequences. And there is enormous rich began in the early 1900s and went on. It wasnt just the people in the downwind fallout. All along that Nuclear Chain therev has been a trail of death and devastation. The miners who mined the uranium orr. They were sent down there without protection or gear. It has been study. People who worked at the test site were also seeing the same diseases. Our stories, its amazing when i talked to all these other people how much we all have in common. Host sorry to interrupt. Just want to let viewers know that they can call in and ask you a question. Make a comment. Our lines are by region. So if you are in the eastern or central time zones, its 2027488,000. Mountain or pacific, 2027488001. And our line for those that are in the downwinder areas, call us on 2027488002. Mary, you said the government knew about these Health Effects from long ago. What were you told at the time the residents of those areas, and how did you feel about guest they actually printed booklets that told us we were participants in a very important gram. And in my mind i never forgot was, many of you are hearing reports of Geiger Counters going crazy these days. Dont let them bother you. We were given booklets basically saying there is no danger when they knew from the very beginning that it wasnt safe. In fact, when they moved testing from the pacific to the u. S. , they were warned that if they put it in nevada that the wind in our country throws to the east and it would spread across the country. In the name of convenience and expediency they chose the testify testify test chose the nevada test site. It was a lowuse segment of the population. Fallout spreads. It blows with the wind. If you saw smoke from fires from where you lived this summer, or last summer, thats what you can see. You dont always see the radiation. Host as radiation exposure compensation act was signs into law in 1990. What does it do . Guest if you live in certain counties in utah, arizona, and nevada, they were largely rural counties, and could prove you lived there during certain years and got certain cancers, you could apply for compensation. If you were a uranium miner who worked before 1971 you could apply. The program was always flawed. It never went far enough. It was a lifeline for so many people. I talked to some those people who said they never could have managed medical bills without it. Still, many people were bankrupted. And many people had no recourse at all. It was an important act. It was called compassionate payment by george h. W. Bush who signed it into law. It has not gone far enough. Host when you say compensation. How much are we talking about . Or are all the bills covered . Guest this is the thing. If you are a downwinder, 50,000. If you were a test site worker, 75,000. A uranium miner or worker it was 100,000. Which if you think about it, 50,000, that doesnt even cover the cost of the chemo treatment. It was a small amount. It was helpful. But it certainly didnt cover your treatment. I have to say it certainly didnt make up for the lives of those that we lost. We have buried and mourn the dead. We comforted and advocated for the living. With each ache, pain, and lump we are getting sick again. I would say my sisters life was certainly worth more than 50,000. Host how hard is it to put in a claim . What do you have to prove, what do you have to show . What happens if you get denied . Guest ok. Good question. Because not everyone who applies gets the compensation. You have to prove that you lived in the areas that are approved during the years of 1951 to 1958 or the summer of 1962. If you were a child then, you dont have mortgage payments to show. And its hard to prove. If were you a uranium worker. Many were on tribal lands, where they dont have access to health care. They dont necessarily keep the records, its very hard to prove you were there. Its also very hard to prove you had those diseases. As i said, there often has to travel like three hours for medical care. They dont have what they need to show they have those diseases. I kept medical records because i keep things for myself. But if you dont have them its hard to get. You dont automatically get it because you say i live there. I was there. I had this disease. Host Start Talking to viewers, mary. Tina is first. A downwinder in albuquerque, new mexico. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host good. Go right ahead. Caller my name is tina. I live in new mexico. I am like mary, a downwinder. Im just like mary in many ways actually, because i have Thyroid Cancer as well. And i grew up in a community that was 45 miles away. The crows fly from the treupbity test site trinity test site. We were people that lived off the land and ash fell from the sky after the trinity test contaminating everything. And my family has an extensive history of cancer. I lost my dad to cancer. My grandmothers had cancer. My grandfathers. I have lost countless aunts, uncles, cousins, friends just like mary. I have a question for mary. I now have a 23yearold niece that has Thyroid Cancer. We are seeing a lot of that in new mexico where this is producing four or five generations. And we are seeing younger children get sick all the time. And for us, because its rural, we dont have access to health care easily. It really takes everything we have to address this. We go into great debt and it takes a horrible, emotional, psychological, and then financial toll on our families. I guess my question for mary is, if shes seeing these sorts of things, too, where we are having four and five generations of cancer and no help from the government whatsoever. Host go ahead. Guest yeah, tina. I am so sorry for your losses. I know. You are like a sister. It is incredibly hard on families. Its not just getting sick. Its Everything Else you describe. And this is whats really sad. If tina, because they were downwinders, of trinity, her family was never compensated. They werent included in reca. And they were the first ones to suffer the bomb. They also, by the way, got the fallout from testing in nevada. So this were double victims. Under this new reca we expanded reca. This part now is the National Defense authorization act in the senate, but must go through the house t. Would add the house, it would add the trinity downwinders who have been forgotten all these years. It would add not only all of utah, all of new mexico, all of nevada, but other states. Youve got arizona, colorado, idaho, montana, and new mexico, as well as guam. It would increase who was eligible for this. And it would give them some measure of help t would raise that amendment, which believe me is not enough on a scale of a level to 150,000 uniformly across miners, workers, and downwinders. Host crockett, texas, billy. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all i want to commend cspan because you all do a great job of letting people speak. What we need to do now with all the divisions and problems we have in america is just be more open and public about how we express things. And weve got a great president and thats what i like about him. When trump administrationp trump was president , we had covid19 and that spread and did devastation. Ill also say this we are a nation of god. Im one of gods sons and i can till as long as we stay under god we are going to be defeat our diseases. We have people speaking out, like our president. We are going to be defend america. Thank you again, cspan, god bless you all. Host reca was set to expire last year. President biden extended the filing deadline to july of 2024. Whats going on with that . Guest yes. Thats why we feel a special urgency because the entire program will expire at the end of next june if something doesnt happen. We need to extend it. We need to expand it. And we are right now closer than we have ever been. It was a real moment. Interestingly it was senator josh hawley of missouri who got this put into the ndaa. Because there are people in his state who were made sick by Nuclear Waste from the Manhattan Project thats been stored there. They had to close the school down. Its gotten into cold creek. When that creek flooded it went into their homes. Uranium, let me tell you, thats got half life, thousands of years. Thousands of years. He got that amendment in. Senator Ben Ray Lujan of new mexico has been a true champion all these years. He was a sponsor of that bill as was senator mike crapo of idaho. This is a bipartisan effort. Its strongly bipartisan. Lets face it. It didnt just affect red or blue states, republicans or tkefplts it affected everybody. This is a real human issue and something i think would be easy for people to get behind of when your government harms you, they have a moral obligation to help take care of you. Host collette is a downwinder in oregon. Good morning. Caller good morning. Is it me . Host yes, its you. Go ahead. Caller i have a girlfriend that her father was an indian agent. Hanford Nuclear Power plant. She ended up with Thyroid Cancer. They grabbed her right away and she was treated at hanford. Come to find out all the girls in puberty at that time, the indian girls, got Thyroid Cancer. And hanford Nuclear Power plant is near the columbia river. It is seeping uranium towards the river. It scares us. I was raised and we are considered downwinders from hanford. I notice that wasnt on your map. I wondered why. Guest good question. We have wondered that. When you look at how many people were affected in the production, it was plutonium they were manufacturing there in hanford. It is awfully close to the columbia river. They are downwinders. I know people there who have Thyroid Cancer. I have become friends with. I have to say that the act doesnt still go far enough. If we get to the next level we can have it amended. So many people have been affected by Nuclear Weapons. The radiation from that, the fallout, in the manufacturing, in the waste storage. We would look at the numbers of people whose lives have been destroyed. Its incredibly sad. I dont know if you all saw the movie, oppenhimer. At the end when oppenhimer says to einstein, we worry we might destroy the world. And einstein says, and . And oppenhimer says, i believe we did. I know for a lot of us it has destroyed our worlds. It has destroyed our worlds. And a government that did this must take responsibility. If you believe Nuclear Weapons are part of our descent, then part of that cost is the human cost. And thats all of us who were the casualties of that. Host kevin is in maine, a downwinder. Caller hello. I am overwhelmed with todays program. I almost didnt watch this segment, and im looking at this woman looking like an angel with this information i have been trying to get at for years. And it revolves around i was watching a pbs documentary on uranium. And chernobyl. But it mentioned a nuclear test in 1963, april, 1963, that also bigger than they expected and it sent an enormous amount of debris into the atmosphere, higher than they expected, and it drifted peacefully across the continent, but just before it went off into the atlantic, it got swept up into large storm front that dumped this is amazing. My hometown, troy, new york, its documented, the physics professors opening up a university Civics Department that morning were fascinated with the fact that every Geiger Counter in the room was pegged and crackling. Thats the beginning of the story. The story goes on and i was born september, 1954. And i played on fields. My face was in the dirt. Soccer, football, baseball. Everything. Our playgrounds all over that area were saturated. And we didnt know a thing about it. And we lived there. Bring it to today. I have been trying to be in touch with people i went to school with. Half of them died. Half of my Grammar School class died years ago of different cultures. My mother died after Breast Cancer in the 1960s. My father died in 1962 with colon cancer. My brothers had prostate cancer. Also my sister has always had problems with her endough christians endocrins. Help me get information. Guest i am so sorry. I am very aware of that story with troy. They knew at the time that it was a testing assignment. They knew it fell out because it tracked it down to nevada and the test there, as you said, it kwhraoeuded with one of the worst thunderstorms collided with one of the worst thunderstorms in 100 years and fell out over your area. They measured it. There was a man who wrote a book, a good day has no rain. It chronicles that story that shows up in a lot of places. You are definitely downwinders. You were. Host mary, is there a website people can go to . Where can they get help if they think they have been affected and they want to get help . Guest i would send to you a website thats called expandreca. Rog. There are all sorts of places to look if they want to look at the forms for filing they can go to the department of justice website and type in reca. Google reca. It will come. I would say what we have to do is keep telling these stories. To me the most important thing are these stories. Because we are the lived experience. We have lived this. We have suffered with it. And i always tell people, raise your voice. You need to organize. You need to say we need help, too. We should be covered in this. There is good evidence for troy for your area. Good evidence. It was tragic. There is another excellent book i recommend for people called, the u. S. The u. S. Atlas and nuclear fallout. Also under the cloud the dekes of Nuclear Testing. His books by volumes shows how much each county got and ranks them. I would recommend that to people. As you can see to me this is a national tragedy. Its a catastrophe. And people in our country arent taught this. They dont know about this. They are stunned when we start telling them that a lot of the victims of Nuclear Weapons are right here in the United States. The other sad thing for me is the half life of these radio nuclides is thousands of years. We are still living with this. The d. N. A. Damage can be passed down. We are seeing, tina told us earlier, other generations being affected. It doesnt end. It has no ended. Its not a story of our past. We are still living in. Host leon next in madisonville, tennessee. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go right ahead. Caller a Nuclear Plant for 34 years i worked at, been exposed to radiation. And took me 18 years to get the white card from the department of labor to get approved on skin cancer. I was wondering if shes an advocate for people that need help. I wonder if host you mean for skin cancer, leon . Caller i have skin cancer. Host is that included, mary . Guest i believe it is. I believe thats one that is. I have to look. You can look on the reca website. But, yeah, there was a lot of work going on with manufacture in tennessee. Oak ridge. One thing missing was surprising to me there was a researcher at william and mary who took honey samples. And he found something in the honey in tennessee, a sam in tennessee from the Nuclear Tests. It gets into our ecosystem. The biosphere. And its still there. As a worker, you were very close to it. Host sharon is in albany, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. I remember hearing the story of leaking underground storage tanks. Where Nuclear Waste was being stored in these underground tanks, and the tanks were leaking. And there was question as to how to contain them. And im wondering if this has had any impact on some of the cases that are being seen. Is there a plum extending from these tanks out to different places. Thank you. Guest a very good question. Nuclear waste storage is also a huge problem. And you will see incidences of cancer diseases going up around those plants. When it leaks, it gets into the ground. It gets into the ground water. Its incredibly hard to safely store it. Its a very difficult, difficult thing. Nuclear waste is not safe. From testing in the martial islands, they marshall islands, they put a lot of that waste under a huge concrete dome very near the water. They are developing cracks in that dome. And once thats out, it goes into the ocean. They are not quite sure what to do with it. We are faced with this toxic, toxic material no matter what form it exposes people through that once its there its very hard to control it and to safely contain it. Its, again, i find this absolutely tragic. Host talk to anthony in brooklyn, new york. Good morning. Caller yes. Host go ahead, anthony. Caller thank you. First of all im sorry to hear of the cancer that you have. Also i myself i have cancer, ok. And i was misdiagnosed, unfortunately. Other family, person in my family, that had it. In your situation i was misdiagnosed. In your situation they did have an autoimmune disorder for years. So a few of them they had lupus. And Chronic Fatigue syndrome which i believe you already know this, i believe that is from thm exposure of all of those can be used from the radiation. Am i right . Guest i think they are finding more and more as they look into it it wasnt just cancer caused by radiation exposure. Its other things. Autoimmune diseases. My sister, one of my sisters, has that Chronic Fatigue syndrome. So when you look at what radiation can do, they still have not done enough studies on this. Which is one thing i have always thought was a huge it was a huge glitch on the part of the government that they have not done the studies that need to be done. And that, i think, is a shame. We need more studies because, as you know, science demands evidence. I always say our evidence is also in our bodies. They want the hard facts, too. But they are showing more and more that it also caused causes autoimmune disorders. You have disrupted the immune system essentially with this exposure. There are people who say no level of radiation exposure is safe. So you look at it, way back they were telling people that it was good for them. Science continues to learn more. People are looking into more things. And we can just hope that that continues. And that it gets funded because we have not done a good job of looking into everything that this causes. Host we are taking your calls for about the next seven minutes or so on this program, this topic. Our lines by region. If you are in eastern, central time zones its 2027488000. In the mountain or pacific time zones its 2027488001. If you are a downwinder, a separate line for you, thats 20274le 88002. Joseph is next in williamsport, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. I dont know what to say. All i can say i have a scientific background and radiation is a what shall we call it. Pet peeve is not a good word. Do you understand me . Host keep going. Go right ahead. Caller i know theres spent a lot of time and i appreciate you taking my call. But i am so thrilled that cspan does what it does. Lets put it that way. More people should listen and more people should do things about things like you are bringing forth there on the program. So there its a little p. R. For cspan. Take it on to the radiation. I would ask you, because i dont know, how much those of us like myself, who have been irratated irradiated with thoracic, im going to use scientific words now and i hope you pardon me, because i like to show off. Thats why im on the program. Im not just showing off, i want to warn people about radiation. If i get nothing else said than that, i know you have other people calling in with maybe some horrible stories. Mine, i am thank god, spared, of any dilatorious effects. Every time i got whenever i go to the dentist and i hear the story, oh, its only as much as, you know, if you were flying and all these excuses for the host lets get a response. Mary, what are your thoughts on radiation from other sources . Guest we do get it from other sources. What i would say is, all radiation that comes additive and cumulative. So it adds to your body burden of radiation, xrays, c. T. Scans, all of them adds to what you get. So cumulative exposure is a problem. And i know ive had so many c. Tfrpt scans as c. T. Scans as part of my treatment and to make sure it wasnt there. And then from other complications i developed, thats how they found it. So i mean, they serve a purpose. But it adds to your exposure. You know, in japan they have a card for when you go and have xrays, radiation, scans that they keep track of it. So you know how much youre getting and what your cumulative exposure has been. We dont have anything like that in the United States. And i thought, i wish i had that. So i would know what else ive received from different procedures. And, yes, they are important to diagnose and they diagnosed some things for me to save my life, but it does add up. And i would say, just the Nuclear Testing aspect of it, you think about one bomb and the exposure, but think about this. There were 100 aboveground tests at the nevada test site. Thats atmospheric. 100. That means you were exposed repeatedly if you were downwind of those. So its not a good thing. And not everyone, though, who is exposed will end up getting sick and we have no idea why one person stands under the same clouds of fallout or drinking the same radiated milk will get cancer and the person next to them wont. You know, we dont know what why that is. But that is how it is. But i thank you for your question. Host lets try to get one more call in. George in hillsborough, ohio. Go ahead, george. Caller yes. In 1973, i was at a meeting of government officials that came down to ohio to tell us they were going to put a nuclear dump in near my farm. And where i grew up. And they went ahead and did this. We complained, we said, we dont want it. Pu they said but they said, were going to put it in there anyway. The community, we were at a meeting. So they went ahead and put it in. And since then its tons and tons of barrels of plow to um were buried pleau to eupwere bureau plutonium were buried in a soybean field with a mound over it. In marathon, ohio, most of the kids have bone cancer. Ive complained for years to the government to come back and clean it up because they said it was temporary. Theyve never done anything to clean this site up. And it affects cincinnati, columbus, hillsborough and all the towns around. And i have thyroid disease, skin cancer, and a number of things. I also lived in arizona, new mexico and colorado for about 25 years, way back when. Host well get a quick response. Mary . Guest im so sorry for that. There are so many Nuclear Waste sites around the country that have not been remediated. I know on tribal lands there are still Uranium Mines that are open, that have not been remediated. Kids play around that. This has also been a problem. I always tell people, you know, organize. Organize. Talk to your officials. Call your congressman. Because you have a right to be heard. You have a right to be safe. And thats what i would tell you. I know this radiation exposure compensation act should come through the house, when in conferencing as part of the National Defense authorization act, will help a lot of people. But there will still be work that can be done. I mean, its an evolving sort of thing. I would say call your congressman, ask them to support this. Tell them, you know, this is not an expense, this is a recompence. The government has, again, a moral responsibility to be forthcoming and honest with its citizens and to take care of those who have been harmed. Host all right, mary dickson, a downwinder and a Victim Advocate. You can find out more at expandrica. Org. Thank you so much for joining us today. Guest thank you for having me. Thank you very much. Host and thanks to all of our viewers who joined us today and thats it for todays washington journal. Well be back again tomorrow morning, 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Have a great day, everybody. Now were going to take you live to the Congressional Black Caucus foundation. Theyre holding their annual legislative conference on issues impacting africanamericans and the global black community. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] live here on cspan, just waiting for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference to begin. Theyll be discussing legislation that impacts africanamericans and the global black community. Economic development, civil and social justice, Public Health and education issues. The theme of this conference this year is securing our democracy, protecting our freedoms, uplifting our culture. Also today on capitol hill, members are not expected to return for votes until tuesday unless theyre called back to the capitol. House members failed to move forward on defense spending legislation yesterday and still face that september 30 deadline to fund the federal government or risk a shutdown. Again, were live here at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference. Talking about legislation that effects africanamericans and the black community. And live coverage here on cspan this morning at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference. Again, discussing legislation that impacts africanamericans and the black community globally. Including economic development, civil and social justice and Public Health and education issues. Expecting them to start shortly here. Their conversation from washington, d. C. Live here at the ksbw action Congressional Black Caucus conference. Expecting the conversation and discussions to begin shortly. Also, let you know today on capitol hill, the House Rules Committee will meet at 1 00 p. M. Eastern. Live coverage here on cspan. Good morning. I am so excited. I think all of you know that as the