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Congress Fails Again to Reinstate Nuclear Victim Compensation
January/February 2025
Congress once again failed to allocate aid for communities harmed by U.S. nuclear weapons testing and development in its latest federal spending bill.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), established in 1990, provided one-time payments to downwinder communities affected by Cold War-era nuclear testing, uranium mining, and nuclear waste. Nuclear justice advocates for decades have challenged the program’s restrictive eligibility criteria and pushed for its extension and expansion. The program expired in June without any adjustments. Since then, advocates have been trying to reinstate it through various legislative vehicles. (See ACT, July/August 2024.)
On Dec. 17, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has “blocked” RECA reauthorization from being included in the continuing resolution, an interim bill to keep the government running without regular appropriations. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), another proponent of RECA, blasted Johnson on Dec. 17 on the social platform X for “personally killing a bipartisan, bicameral expansion bill” while spending “billions on Ukraine and foreign wars.”
In his post, Lee said that he had worked with other lawmakers, including Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Hawley, to get a “compromise measure” for RECA. Lee did not explain what was included in the compromise and whether it reflects the expansion and extension bill that the Senate approved last year. (See ACT, September 2024.)—SHAGHAYEGH CHRIS ROSTAMPOUR