Today U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) held a press conference with House lawmakers and victims of nuclear contamination across America – including those from the St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo., areas – to push the House to pass their Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in an effort to provide justice and compensation for those who have been harmed by the federal government’s decades of negligence.
“The wait has been too long, and it has been too cruel, and there is no need to wait any longer,” said Senator Hawley. “The Senate is proof that we can pass this bill. We passed it with nearly 70 votes, and we have the votes in the House. We have the votes. We’ve counted them, we have them. We have a majority; we could pass it on suspension. This could pass in the House. We need the House to put this bill on the floor.”
Watch the full press conference by clicking here or on the image above.
Background
Senator Hawley has been the leading voice in the fight to secure just compensation for radiation victims in Missouri—and across the nation.
In March, the Senate passed—for the second time—Senator Hawley’s legislation to reauthorize and expand RECA by a strong bipartisan vote of 69-30.
Days before that vote, he sent a letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers General Scott Spellmon and Colonel Andy Pannier, blasting the Corps for its deliberate concealment of cleanup efforts in the St. Louis area after new disturbing reports detail more radioactive contamination in residents’ homes.
Senator Hawley brought Dawn Chapman—co-founder of the grassroots advocacy group “Just Moms” in St. Louis and longtime advocate for victims of nuclear contamination in the region—as his guest to the 2024 State of the Union address.
In February, Senator Hawley sent a letter to his Republican colleagues in the Senate, urging them to reauthorize RECA.
Following its first Senate passage in July of 2023, Senator Hawley’s RECA reauthorization was later stripped from that year’s NDAA by congressional leadership.
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