Excerpt from Rep. Hank Johnson’s closing comments:
“I heard the figure $2.5 billion in claims have been paid out thus far to 37,000 claimants. The cost of maintaining our nuclear weapons over the next 10 years will be $494 billion, almost $50 billion a year.
So, $50 billion a year to take care of our nuclear weapons, and over the time that this act has been in place we’ve spent $2.5 billion to compensate folks who have been adversely impacted by radiation.
That’s just a pittance, and its pathetic that our values are more towards protecting and taking care of our weapons than we are with taking care of the people who were adversely impacted.”