With just days left before the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expires, House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the U.S. House of Representatives without taking action to extend or expand the legislation.
Following this, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico who has been working since 2006 to expand the legislation to include downwinders impacted by the Trinity Test and people who worked in uranium mining and milling after 1971, criticized Johnson.
“Since being elected to Congress, I’ve built a bipartisan coalition, worked with advocates, and secured the support of President Biden to move legislation forward to strengthen the RECA program. As a result, the Senate twice passed my bipartisan RECA legislation. This was the most significant legislative action in decades,” he said. “I am disappointed that Speaker Johnson sent the House home without taking action on RECA before the sunset date, putting the coverage and compensation of American families at risk. Advocates from communities nationwide traveled to Washington to make their voices heard, share their painful stories, and fight for this program. I was proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.”
Luján said in a press release that the fight to expand RECA is not over.
“I remain committed to providing long-overdue justice to victims and survivors and passing legislation to extend and expand RECA,” he said. “I will continue having conversations with my colleagues and advocates on the best path forward and finding a legislative vehicle to advance future legislation. New Mexicans and all impacted Americans deserve justice.”
RECA is set to expire on Monday and the House will not reconvene until Tuesday.
“In allowing RECA to expire, Speaker Johnson has not only betrayed our veterans, 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,” Justin Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington office, said in a press release. “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.”
Tina Cordova, the co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, also criticized Johnson.
“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,” she said in a press release. “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.”
