Operation Buster-Jangle – Dog Test – in which troops participate in Exercise Desert Rock I. It was the first US nuclear field exercise conducted on land; Troops shown are just 6 miles away from the 1951 Nevada test site explosion. (Public domain)
Policy, politics and progressive commentary
The office of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday scrapped a proposal to expand a compensation program for radiation exposure victims without expanding it to thousands of Americans in nine states.
In a statement that came less than four hours after Johnson’s office said a proposal to expand the program was too expensive, a spokesperson said Republican leaders had decided not to put the bill up for a vote next week. The statement said the decision came after discussions with the US representative. Anna Wagnera Republican from the St. Louis suburbs.
Wagner said in a statement that she was pleased that Republican leaders “listened to my concerns and those of my constituents and withdrew the vote on this misguided proposal.”
“We continue to fight for expansion… so that Missourians affected by radiation receive the support and compensation they deserve,” Wagner said.
The existing Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expires in less than two weeks, and as the deadline approaches, federal lawmakers are caught between the need to expand the program to keep it available to people already eligible and the pressure to expand it to St. Petersburg cancer patients. Louis to the Navajo Nation.
Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation are criticizing Johnson’s plan to expand the program without expanding it. Early Wednesday afternoon, Johnson’s spokesman said Republican leaders “are committed to ensuring that the federal government meets its existing obligations to Americans exposed to nuclear radiation.”
“Unfortunately, the current Senate bill is estimated to cost $50 billion to $60 billion in new mandatory spending without any offsets, and was supported by only 20 of the 49 Republicans in the Senate,” the spokesperson said.
It is unclear whether, following the leadership reversal, an expanded program will be voted on before the law expires.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, originally passed by Congress in 1990, provides compensation to uranium miners and civilians who were downwind of nuclear bomb testing in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. It expires on June 10, and for months, advocates and members of Congress — mainly from Missouri and New Mexico — have been lobbying Congress to extend it.
U.S. Senators have twice passed legislation that would expand RECA, but it has gone nowhere in the House of Representatives. The legislation would add the remaining parts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada to the program and provide coverage to downwinders in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Guam. It would also provide coverage for residents exposed to radioactive waste in Missouri, Tennessee, Alaska and Kentucky.
This story was originally published in the Missouri Independent.
The post that the U.S. House speaker is rolling back Missouri’s radiation compensation bill first appeared on Nevada Current.
