Wagner, Colleagues Call on Speaker Johnson to Include RECA Reauthorization in Upcoming Appropriations Package
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO), and her Missouri colleagues Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO), and Congressman Mark Alford (R-MO), today called on House and Senate Leadership and the Appropriations Committees to include the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act in the upcoming fiscal year 2024 appropriations package.
The Members said: “We write with the utmost urgency regarding the impending sunset of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). It is imperative that S. 3853, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, legislation that recently passed the Senate on a 69-30 vote, be attached to the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations package. As you know, Congress first enacted RECA in 1990 to provide benefits for Americans adversely affected by the U.S. government’s testing of atomic weapons…Unfortunately, the long-term ramifications of the federal government’s atomic research continue to harm Americans today, far beyond the scope of current law. RECA’s authorization is currently scheduled to sunset on June 7, 2024, and this program must be renewed and reformed. In Missouri, nuclear waste from these projects that was discarded in the 1960s has resulted in radioactive contamination spreading throughout the greater St. Louis area, including St. Louis County and St. Charles County.
“With RECA’s authorization expiring in less than three months, time is of the essence. Therefore, we emphatically request that S. 3853 be attached to the upcoming FY2024 appropriations package.”
Read the full letter to House and Senate Leadership and the Appropriations Committees below and here.
Dear Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Jeffries, Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Chairwoman Granger, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chairwoman Murray, and Vice Chair Collins,
We write with the utmost urgency regarding the impending sunset of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). It is imperative that S. 3853, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, legislation that recently passed the Senate on a 69-30 vote, be attached to the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations package.
As you know, Congress first enacted RECA in 1990 to provide benefits for Americans adversely affected by the U.S. government’s testing of atomic weapons. These benefits have been made available to certain individuals who developed specific cancers or other diseases due to their participation in an atmospheric atomic weapons test, presence within certain areas near such weapons tests (commonly referred to as “downwinders”), or their work mining or transporting uranium. Unfortunately, the long-term ramifications of the federal government’s atomic research continue to harm Americans today, far beyond the scope of current law. RECA’s authorization is currently scheduled to sunset on June 7, 2024, and this program must be renewed and reformed.
In Missouri, nuclear waste from these projects that was discarded in the 1960s has resulted in radioactive contamination spreading throughout the greater St. Louis area, including St. Louis County and St. Charles County. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to find previously unknown areas where radioactive waste has leaked from the Westlake Landfill, an EPA Superfund site on the National Priorities List. In 2021, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources warned the U.S. Department of Energy that contamination levels have not improved at the Weldon Spring Site in St. Charles County, where the federal government refined uranium, that sits less than a mile from a highschool. Contamination has also been found in a residential waterway, Coldwater Creek, resulting in the closure of a nearby elementary school. The federal government’s own health investigators have found that this waste has contributed to significantly increased cancer risks for residents, including children. Specifically, in 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released a report finding an increased risk of bone cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia. Missourians have been living and continue to live in unimaginable fear that they and their loved ones will contract fatal illnesses due to their government’s mistakes.
Missourians, and all Americans affected, deserve restitution from the government for this harm. On March 7, 2024, S. 3853 passed the Senate with overwhelming, bipartisan support. This legislation would not only reauthorize RECA, but also expand benefits to residents, workers, and students of twenty-one Missouri ZIP codes in and around where the federal government discarded radioactive waste. These benefits would include compensation for documented out-of-pocket medical expenses for specified diseases such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and certain cancers. Benefits would also be extended to the beneficiaries of deceased individuals.
With RECA’s authorization expiring in less than three months, time is of the essence. Therefore, we emphatically request that S. 3853 be attached to the upcoming FY2024 appropriations package.