Bipartisan Missouri reps ask Johnson to include radiation compensation bill in appropriations package

Bipartisan members of Missouri’s House delegation are calling on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to include the radiation compensation bill that recently passed the Senate in an upcoming appropriations bill.

In a letter Tuesday, Missouri Reps. Cori Bush (D), Ann Wagner (R), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R) and Mark Alford (R) asked Johnson to include the bill, which reauthorizes and expands the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), in the appropriations package for fiscal 2024. 

“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,” the members wrote. “With RECA’s authorization expiring in less than three months, time is of the essence.”

The initial law compensates Americans exposed to radiation through nuclear testing and uranium mining, but its parameters exclude both those downwind of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test and those exposed to runoff in the St. Louis area, the site of World War 2-era uranium processing. The contaminants produced by that activity linger to this day, particularly in Coldwater Creek.

After a two-year extension ordered by President Biden in 2022, the law is set to expire in June without reauthorization. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has spearheaded efforts to extend the law and expand its scope, first in an unsuccessful amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last year and then in a stand-alone bill, which passed the Senate in a 69-30 vote last week. The White House has said Biden will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Wagner’s name on the letter comes days after Hawley publicly blasted her for comments to The Kansas City Star saying there “needs to be a legit pay-for” accompanying an expansion of RECA. Shortly after, Hawley tweeted that it was “shameful for Ann Wagner to turn her back on her constituents – after doing nothing on this issue for years.” 

Bush, meanwhile, has long pushed for cleanup and remediation efforts relating to Coldwater Creek, and introduced separate bicameral legislation with Hawley in 2023 to create a fund for schools affected by waste from the Manhattan Project and specifically require the cleanup of Jana Elementary School in her district. 

“The Senate’s passage of a RECA bill that includes Missouri is a crucial step towards securing the compensation St. Louisans deserve,” Bush said in a statement Thursday. “I look forward to championing this legislation as it advances to the House, and I remain committed to ensuring our government does everything in its power to rectify their wrongdoings.”