House Speaker Mike Johnson today allowed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to expire, leaving military veterans, former uranium workers and victims of nuclear weapons detonations at the Nevada test site without access to health screenings or financial reimbursement for medical debt from radiation-related illnesses.
Despite pleas from advocates, Johnson refused to allow House members to vote on bipartisan legislation to renew and improve the program. Passed by the Senate nearly 90 days ago, the bill would have extended the program for six years, increased compensation provided to those harmed, which had not been updated in over two decades, and expanded the program to cover people who have been excluded, such as the victims of the first nuclear weapon detonation in New Mexico and those living just 20 miles from the Nevada test site in Clarke County, Nevada.
Johnson refused multiple requests to meet with people impacted by radiation exposure from nuclear weapons tests, production and waste.
“We’ve tried everything we could to meet face to face with Speaker Johnson to make our case, and he has put us off at every turn. We’ve spent thousands of dollars and weeks away from our families traveling to D.C. to try to meet with members of Congress to get them to care about us,” said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms STL. “This week marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, but for many people in this community World War II never ended and there are still casualties. This is not about dollars and cents to us, this is about being able to look our kids and our neighbors in the eyes and tell them we did everything we could to take care of them, to get our government to do the right thing and take responsibility for the harm its careless treatment of nuclear waste has done to our families.”
"In allowing RECA to expire, Speaker Johnson has not only betrayed our veterans and blue-collar uranium miners and families who were unwitting victims of our nation's nuclear weapons program but has profoundly wronged the Navajo people who have given so much to this country,” said Justin Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington office. “The government made a sacred promise to care for those harmed by its nuclear actions. By abandoning this commitment, Speaker Johnson has chosen to value dollars and cents over the lives and well-being of our people. This decision dishonors the sacrifices of the Navajo Nation and undermines the trust and respect that should bind us all."
“Every day that passes without Congress acting to make the needed improvements to RECA, someone in this country is having the worst day of their life,” said Christen Commuso a community outreach specialist with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. “They are getting a diagnosis of a radiation-related disease; they are getting tested to see if the cancer has finally come back; they are trying to figure out what bill they can afford not to pay this month to pay for medical care; or they are rationing their medical care and skipping an appointment and hoping they’ll be okay. People are not randomly getting sick. Our government poisoned us. We deserve help.”
“For over 30 years via the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), helping the people sickened by radiation exposure has been held on high above political parties, political games, brinkmanship and cost,” said Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and a sixth generation New Mexican. “Congress has always been able to come together and do what is right and necessary to take care of the people who were made sick by our country’s nuclear weapons program. Today, improving RECA should not be about politics, parties, or cost. It should be about taking care of the American Citizens - including children - that our government put at tremendous risk in service of our national security. We will continue to fight for everyone who has been harmed by nuclear tests, mining and waste, and we will leave no one behind.”
The Department of Justice, which administers the program, will continue to process RECA claims postmarked by June 10.