US Senate seeks to add expanded compensation for nuclear radiation
victims to tax bill
[June 14, 2025]
By MICHAEL PHILLIS and MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — A program to compensate people exposed to radiation
from past nuclear weapons testing and manufacturing could be restarted
and expanded under a provision added by U.S. senators to the major tax
and budget policy bill.
The language added Thursday to the Senate version of the massive tax
bill would overhaul the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which was
originally enacted in 1990 and expired about a year ago. The law
compensated people in about a dozen western states who developed serious
illnesses from nuclear testing and manufacturing stemming from World War
II-era efforts to develop the atomic bomb.
The new Senate provision would expand the coverage to states including
Missouri and Tennessee, among other places. It would also cover a wider
range of illnesses.
The program's limited scope in the West has led Republican Sen. Josh
Hawley of Missouri to push for its expansion to include uranium sites in
St. Louis and victims in other states. His advocacy led the Senate to
twice pass a major overhaul of the program, but it stalled in the U.S.
House amid concerns about its cost. Without an agreement over the
program’s scope in Congress, the program lapsed.
Hawley said the new language compensates many more people, but at a far
lower cost than previous legislation.
“These folks deserve to be recognized for the sacrifices they made and
compensated when the government has poisoned them without telling them,
without helping them, without making it right," Hawley said Friday.
“This is a chance, finally, to make it right.”
Still, the new provision's pathway remains uncertain when the House
considers the Senate's changes. While there is broad Senate support for
the payments, it is unclear how the addition of Hawley’s legislation
will be received by cost-conscious Republicans as they barrel toward a
self-imposed July 4 deadline for the overall tax bill. House leaders are
waiting to see what comes out of the Senate before deciding whether they
might make further changes or simply try to pass the Senate bill and
send it to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Lingering effects in Missouri
St. Louis played a key role processing uranium as the United States
developed a nuclear weapons program that was vital for winning World War
II. But that effort exposed workers and nearby residents to radiation,
with lingering issues remaining to this day. An elementary school was
closed down a few years ago because of radioactive material found on
site. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remains years away from finishing
environmental cleanup work.
An investigation by The Associated Press, The Missouri Independent and
MuckRock found the federal government and companies responsible for
nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites in the St. Louis
area in the mid-20th century were aware of health risks, spills,
improperly stored contaminants and other problems but often ignored
them.
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A member of the Navajo Nation holds holds a banner during a news
conference about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act on Capitol
Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana,
File)
Nuclear waste contaminated Coldwater Creek, and those who live
nearby worry their cancers and other severe illnesses are connected.
It’s difficult to definitively link specific illnesses with the
waste, but advocates for an expanded compensation program said
there’s evidence it made people sick years later.
After the report by the AP and others, Hawley said sick St. Louis
residents deserved help, too. He was joined by Dawn Chapman,
co-founder of Just Moms STL, which brought attention to local
nuclear contamination. She has called St. Louis a “national
sacrifice zone.”
“Many of us have had extreme amounts of devastation in the form of
illnesses in our families,” Chapman said Friday.
Expanding ‘downwinder’ eligibility
The provision added Thursday would also expand coverage areas in
several states for those exposed to radioactive contamination that
blew downwind from government sites. In New Mexico, for example,
advocates have sought to expand the program for people near the spot
where the first Manhattan Project-era bomb was tested. These
residents didn't know the blast was why ash had fallen. It poised
water, crops and livestock. Attention for these “downwinders” rose
following the release of the film Oppenheimer.
“Our federal government has a moral responsibility to support
Americans that helped defend our country — and it has a moral
responsibility to include all people who were exposed. That begins
with reauthorizing RECA and amending it to include those who have
been left out for far too long,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, Democrat
of New Mexico.
Prior to the addition of the radiation compensation measure, Hawley
had so far withheld support for the overall tax package, questioning
cuts to Medicaid programs and the potential effects on rural
hospitals and low income residents. He said he still wants to see
improvements in the package, but added that help for radiation
victims was essential.
“It would be very hard for me to vote for a bill that doesn't
include (the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act). This is
extremely, extremely important to me," Hawley said.
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