Hawley vows to attach Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to anything moving on Senate floor

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will attach an amendment reauthorizing and expanding a law compensating Americans exposed to radiation by the federal government to all items moving on the Senate floor, his office confirmed Monday.

In a letter to Republican Senate colleagues, Hawley urged the caucus to back an amendment reauthorizing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and expanding its coverage to New Mexico, Missouri, Idaho, Montana, Guam, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska.

“Our reauthorization bill passed the Senate last summer with a strong bipartisan vote, and I am grateful for much support from our Conference,” Hawley wrote. “Now we must finish the job. There are RECA claimants in every state, including each of yours. They will benefit if this bill is passed. Simply put, this is the right thing to do.”

Hawley’s announcement comes as the government is set to shut down at the end of this week without a funding agreement. 

The law, enacted in 1990, compensates Americans who were downwind of nuclear testing or exposed to radiation through uranium ore mining. The states covered under the current law include residents of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona and their survivors. However, it does not cover those in New Mexico, the site of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test, nor does it cover residents of Missouri exposed to radiation through uranium processing at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. 

President Biden has already reauthorized the law, which was set to sunset in 2022, a further two years, but it is set to expire this year without further action. 

Hawley co-sponsored the reauthorization and expansion as part of the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last year with Sens. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). The amendment passed the Senate with a supermajority, but it was removed during conference with House leaders and not included in the final version of the bill.