WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would compensate Americans exposed to radiation by the government by renewing a law initially passed more than three decades ago.
The bill by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., would expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include more people who believe their illnesses were caused by that exposure. While many Republicans have balked at the cost -- an estimated $50 billion, according to Hawley's office -- the senators have argued that the government is at fault and should step up.
Hawley stood outside the Senate before the vote with advocates for the legislation, several of whom have been diagnosed with cancers or have family members who have been diagnosed. He said it's "hard to look them in the eye" and say they were poisoned by their government, "but we're not going to be there for you."
The bill passed the Senate 69-30, with 20 Republicans and all but two Democrats voting in favor. But its prospects in the House are uncertain.
Both of Arkansas' Republican senators, Tom Cotton and John Boozman, voted in favor of the bill.
Uranium processing in the St. Louis area played a pivotal role in developing the nuclear weapons that helped bring an end to World War II and provided a key defense during the Cold War. But eight decades later, the region is still dealing with contamination at several sites.
In July, an investigation published by The Associated Press, The Missouri Independent and MuckRock showed that the federal government and companies responsible for nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites in the St. Louis area were aware of health risks, spills, improperly stored contaminants and other problems but often ignored them.
While it is difficult to prove definitively that residents' illnesses were caused by the waste, the advocates argue that there is more than enough evidence that it has sickened people in the area.
"I am a two-time breast cancer survivor," said Missouri state Rep. Chantelle Nickson-Clark, a Democrat who represents Florissant, an area that sits along the creek that was contaminated by nuclear waste in the 1960s. "I lost my mother to breast cancer, an aunt to breast cancer. Two cousins that are breast cancer survivors, a nephew that had a cancerous brain tumor and other genetic mutation deficiencies in my family. I'm here to represent a community that has been underserved, undervalued, underrepresented and unheard."
President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2022 extending RECA for two years, but it expires in June.
Hawley's bill would extend the law for five years and expand coverage to include people in Missouri as well as Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alaska and Guam.
The White House indicated Wednesday that Biden would sign the legislation.
"The President believes we have a solemn obligation to address toxic exposure, especially among those who have been placed in harm's way by the government's actions," the White House said in a statement.
Others worried about the cost. The taxpayer advocacy group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said that the legislation should include budget offsets to pay for it.
"Compensation may very well be warranted for individuals harmed by the government's nuclear activities, but the substantial deficit impact of the legislation is concerning and unnecessary," the group said in a statement.
The vote was a rare up-or-down roll call on standalone legislation as Congress is busy trying to fund the government. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that he would put the bill on the Senate floor last week amid negotiations on the spending package.
Hawley would not say if he had threatened to hold up the spending bill over his legislation, which was included in a defense bill last year but stripped out at the last minute. But he said he had pledged to use "every tool at his disposal" to get the bill passed.