EMMETT, ID – People in Idaho who experienced the downwind impacts of nuclear tests will receive more compensation under the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” but the expansion is limited in scope.

The large budget bill signed by President Donald Trump on July 4 included a reauthorization and expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Under the law, Idahoans exposed to nuclear fallout in the 1950s and ’60s are able to receive compensation for diseases caused by those tests.

Tona Henderson, director of the group Idaho Downwinders, has fought for her state to be included in compensation for years. However, she said the expansion does not last until 2040 as she would have wanted.

“This compensation, part of it has expanded it and has increased the compensation compared to what it’s done in the past, but the problem is this is only good for two years,” Henderson explained. “We’ll be right back to the drawing board within two years.”

Henderson said of the 100 aboveground nuclear tests conducted in Nevada in the ’50s and ’60s, 93 sent fallout to Idaho. The expansion fully covers Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah. It partially covers Nevada and Arizona.

Henderson argued the bill leaves out many other places from compensation, such as Guam, where testing also took place. She added certain diseases are still not included, like urinary and prostate cancers.

“It’s compensation for some but not for everybody,” Henderson emphasized. “They have no reason why they pick and choose; pick and choose cancers or pick and choose people.”

Henderson added the U.S. government spent more than $12 trillion on nuclear weapons production and testing. However, since the law was first passed in 1990, until it expired a year ago, the government has only paid out $2.5 billion to affected people.

“They are willing to spend the money to poison our communities and poison our families but they’re not willing to help us out after we contract these cancers,” Henderson asserted.