ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A top Democrat in the U.S. House says it will take a shift of power in Congress to ensure that legislation is finally passed to extend and expand a compensation program for people exposed to radiation following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out by the federal government.
Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar joined Tuesday with members of New Mexico congressional delegation to call on voters to put more pressure on Republican House leaders to revive the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A top Democrat in the U.S. House says it will take a shift of power in Congress to ensure that legislation is finally passed to extend and expand a compensation program for people exposed to radiation following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out by the federal government.
Tina Cordova, center, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, points to audience members who have been dealing with the consequences of radiation exposure, while politicians gathered for a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Advocates of legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program for downwinders and uranium workers listen to Democratic politicians during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Advocates of legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program for downwinders and uranium workers listen to Democratic politicians during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a New Mexico Democrat, discusses legislative efforts to extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. ( AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
U.S. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, center, talks about efforts to revive legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program during a visit to Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
With his party seeking to win back majorities in Congress, the California congressman made campaign pitches for New Mexico Democrats and vowed they would support the multibillion-dollar compensation program.
“I would say this is both a failure in government and this is a failure in leadership,” Aguilar said, referencing House inaction on the legislation.
The Senate passed the bill earlier this year, only for it to stall in the House over concerns by some Republican lawmakers about cost. GOP supporters in the Senate had called on House leadership to take up a vote on the measure, but the act ended up expiring in June.
Native Americans who worked as uranium miners, millers and transporters and people whose families lived downwind from nuclear testing sites have been among those arguing that the legislation was sidelined due to political calculations by the chamber's majority party rather than the price tag.
Advocates for decades have been pushing to expand the compensation program. Front and center have been downwinders in New Mexico, where government scientists and military officials dropped the first atomic bomb in 1945 as part the top secret Manhattan Project.
Residents have made it their mission to bring awareness to the lingering effects of nuclear fallout surrounding the Trinity Test Site in southern New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, where more than 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted over decades to support U.S. nuclear activists.
The chorus grew louder over the past year as the blockbuster “Oppenheimer” brought new attention to the country’s nuclear history and the legacy left behind by years of nuclear research and bomb making.
Freshman Congressman Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat from New Mexico who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that national defense spending tops $860 billion every year.
“So when you tell me that we can’t afford to compensate people who have suffered through pancreatic cancer, miscarriages, the horrors of nuclear fallout and the generation that have suffered from it, it is a joke to me,” he said.
Vasquez, who is facing GOP challenger Yvette Herrell in his bid for reelection, suggested that the legislation be included in a defense spending measure and that lawmakers find ways to offset the cost by saving money elsewhere.
There's still an opportunity for House leaders to “do the right thing,” he said.
The law was initially passed more than three decades ago and has paid out about $2.6 billion in that time. The bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking to update the law has said that the government is at fault for residents and workers being exposed and should step up.
The proposed legislation would have added parts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada to the program and would have covered downwinders in New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Guam. Residents exposed to radioactive waste in Missouri, Tennessee, Alaska and Kentucky also would have been covered.
In New Mexico, residents were not warned of the radiological dangers of the Trinity Test and didn’t realize that an atomic blast was the source of the ash that rained down upon them following the detonation. That included families who lived off the land — growing crops, raising livestock and getting their drinking water from cisterns.
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, left, is flanked by Democratic Congressmen Gabe Vasquez, of New Mexico, and Pete Aguilar, of California, as she speaks during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Tina Cordova, center, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, points to audience members who have been dealing with the consequences of radiation exposure, while politicians gathered for a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Advocates of legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program for downwinders and uranium workers listen to Democratic politicians during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Advocates of legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program for downwinders and uranium workers listen to Democratic politicians during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a New Mexico Democrat, discusses legislative efforts to extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. ( AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
U.S. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, center, talks about efforts to revive legislation that would extend and expand a multibillion-dollar radiation compensation program during a visit to Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
NEW YORK (AP) — Two former New York City Fire Department chiefs were arrested Monday on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to guarantee that the department's fire-safety division gave preferential treatment to some individuals and companies.
Anthony Saccavino, 59, of Manhattan and Brian Cordasco, 49, of Staten Island were arrested on bribery, corruption and false statements charges alleging that they solicited and accepted the bribe payments from at least 2021 through 2023.
They each were freed on $250,000 bail after entering not guilty pleas before a federal judge. Outside the courthouse, neither commented.
The arrests came as multiple ongoing federal investigations swirl around Mayor Eric Adams and his top deputies, including one inquiry that appears at least partly focused on whether the administration sped up fire safety inspections at the Turkish consulate in exchange for illegal contributions.
Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to say whether the case against the former fire chiefs was related to “any other investigation we may or may not be doing.” But he put people on notice that his office is continuing to pursue any corruption.
“We are determined to address it from root to branch, and our work is far from done,” he said at a news conference.
Cordasco and Saccavino were former chiefs of the city Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Prevention, which is responsible for regulating the installation of fire safety and suppression systems throughout New York City and ensuring fire safety regulations are obeyed.
Outside the courthouse, attorney Joseph Caldarera called his client, Saccavino, “an American hero,” a 9/11 first responder who had been with the department since 1995. Prosecutors, he said, "got the wrong guy.”
“He vehemently denies all of the allegations against him today,” the lawyer said. “Is this connected to City Hall? Is this connected to Eric Adams? I'm sure that's the next big question. At this time we don't know and we don't have an answer to that question.”
Attorney Frank Rothman, representing Cordasco, told reporters that his client “has been a dedicated firefighter for two decades, serving fearlessly and faithfully.”
He added: “This is indeed a sad and troubling day, but I'm glad he's on his way home.”
While the indictment makes no reference to projects linked to the Turkish government, it does refer to a “City Hall List” allegedly used by the fire department to “track inquiries and requests from City Hall stakeholders” and give priority to those projects. Adams, a Democrat, has previously denied the existence of the priority list.
In a lawsuit filed last year, a former fire chief said the list had grown substantially under Adams, becoming “a mechanism to press the FDNY to permit politically connected developers to cut the inspection line.”
Williams said at Monday's news conference that Cordasco and Saccavino allegedly used the list to "excuse or cover up the way in which they were pressuring other folks to expedite the matters they were being bribed to expedite.”
According to a news release, Saccavino and Cardasco solicited and accepted bribes from a retired firefighter who ran an unsanctioned “expediting” business that promised customers that he could fast-track their plan reviews and inspection dates in exchange for a fee. Williams said the retired firefighter has pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
The trio managed to collect over $190,000 in payments in a scheme they launched after the coronavirus pandemic created a backlog of work for the fire department's fire-safety division, Williams said.
Even as Cordasco allegedly participated in a bribery scheme, he was raising concern internally about the ethics of granting priority to other projects, according to emails obtained last year by The Associated Press and other outlets.
Following a request by City Hall to expedite an inspection at Hudson Yards, a Manhattan mega-development, Cordasco wrote to other chiefs that it was “extremely unfair to the applicants who had been waiting at least eight weeks for their inspections.”
In a statement, Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said the department will “fully cooperate” with the investigation, adding each of his employees has sworn an oath to honest and ethical behavior and that "anything less will not be tolerated.”
Over the weekend, the top legal adviser to Adams abruptly resigned. That came days after the head of the New York Police Department resigned after federal investigators seized his phone.
Associated Press Writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
Retired New York City Fire Department Chief Brian Cordasco leaves federal court in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Retired New York City Fire Department Chief Brian Cordasco, right, and his lawyer Frank Rothman, leave federal court in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Retired New York City Fire Department Chief Brian Cordasco, right, and his lawyer Frank Rothman, leave federal court in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Retired New York City Fire Department Chief Brian Cordasco, right, and his lawyer Frank Rothman, leave federal court in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
This Feb. 7, 2023 image provided by the Fire Department of the City of New York, shows Brian Cordasco, one of two former NYFD chiefs arrested Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to provide preferential treatment in the department's fire prevention bureau. (Fire Department of the City of New York via AP)
This Feb. 7, 2023 image provided by the Fire Department of the City of New York, shows Anthony Saccavino, one of two former NYFD chiefs arrested Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to provide preferential treatment in the department's fire prevention bureau. (Fire Department of the City of New York via AP)
This combo of Feb. 7, 2023 images provided by the Fire Department of the City of New York, shows Brian Cordasco, left, and Anthony Saccavino, two former NYFD chiefs arrested Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to provide preferential treatment in the department's fire prevention bureau. (Fire Department of the City of New York via AP)
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024, following the arrest of two former New York City Fire Department chiefs. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, holds a binder marked confidential during a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024, following the arrest of two former New York City Fire Department chiefs. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge, James E. Dennehy looks on as DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber speaks at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024, following the arrest of two former New York City Fire Department chiefs. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber, speaks as Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, left, and FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge, James E. Dennehy, second from left, look on during a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge, James E. Dennehy, speaks at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams points to a graphic detailing a New York City Fire Department bribery scheme at a press conference at Federal Plaza in New York, Monday Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, points to a graphic detailing a FDNY bribery scheme at a press conference held at the Federal Plaza in New York, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
