Leadership in the U.S. House of Representative did not include compensation for victims of radiation exposure in its current budget proposal. The program expired in June and advocates were hoping Congress would renew it before the end of the year.
On Tuesday, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said House Speaker Mike Johnson removed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, from a government funding bill.
The senator had crafted a compromise bill with outgoing Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Utah Sen. Mike Lee. But the measure was left out of the House’s continuing resolution that faces a Friday deadline. The omission sets up an uncertain future for RECA.
The program has bipartisan support in Congress, but some Republicans have expressed concerns about its cost.
Earlier this year, the Senate approved a renewal and expansion of RECA, but House leadership didn’t allow a vote, causing it to expire.
And last week, some House Republicans proposed a Utah-only version of RECA. It was met with stiff resistance from Hawley, who said he would oppose any continuing resolution that included only a partial version of the program.
RECA offers payouts to Cold War-era uranium industry workers and others in the West known as downwinders, who suffer from cancer and other diseases caused by nuclear weapons tests.
