Cape News

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) criticized the proposed "clean" extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Hawley argued that the bill fails to provide additional coverage for numerous victims in states like Missouri.

“There’s nothing clean about this bill . . . It leaves Missouri filthy, dirty with nuclear radiation,” said Senator Hawley. He expressed frustration over the federal government's lack of action: “For fifty years the United States government hasn’t paid a penny in my state, in New Mexico, [to] the Navajo Nation, in Arizona, to the miners, our veterans, nothing. Nothing. They’re the ones who made the mess. In Missouri, it’s still not cleaned up.”

Senator Hawley emphasized his firm stance against any temporary measures or partial solutions: “I will not consent to any short term stop gap, to any halfway measure. I will not give my consent to it. It will not pass this floor with my consent... We are not going to turn our backs on the victims. Not any longer.”

Senator Hawley has been a prominent advocate for securing compensation for nuclear radiation victims, particularly those in Missouri's greater St. Louis area and across America. His legislation to reauthorize and expand RECA has passed the Senate twice with strong bipartisan support and now awaits action from the House of Representatives.