A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are reintroducing a bill to reauthorize and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation (RECA) Act (RECA).
A similar bill passed the Senate last session but never made it to a vote in the House of Representatives.
On Thursday, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) announced he and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), along with U.S. Senators Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) are teaming up to sponsor the legislation. “I remain determined to finally deliver justice, recognition, and compensation to the Americans whose livelihoods and health have been devastated by the long-term consequences of radiation exposure,” Heinrich said in a Thursday press release.
“The time to reauthorize RECA is now,” Hawley said in the same press release. The GOP senator said the Senate has backed the reauthorization twice before.
RECA lapsed last June without action by the House. The Senate had passed a five-year extension, expanding the bill downwinders in Western states, include downwinders such as New Mexico as well as some other states where workers became ill working around radioactive waste.
In April 2024 a large bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate, including now-Vice President JD Vance, wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule a vote on the legislation.
