The Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act expired Friday after Congress failed to vote on a bipartisan bill that would have extended or expanded coverage.
Advocates say this leaves veterans, former uranium workers and those impacted by nuclear weapons detonations without access to health screenings or financial reimbursement for medical debt from radiation-related illnesses.
The bill would have funded the program — known as RECA — for another six years and increased coverage to downwinders and uranium workers not currently included, like those in Mohave County and on the Navajo Nation.
It passed the Senate in March but stalled in the House with GOP objections mostly centered on cost.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren called the inaction, “an injustice to the Navajo people who continue to suffer from the devastating health and environmental impacts of uranium mining.”