ST. LOUIS — Congressional leaders are calling out the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for failing to pass a program that would compensate radioactive waste victims.
A program running for more than 30 years will expire Friday at midnight if Congress does not act before then.
Military veterans, former uranium workers and victims of nuclear waste won't have access to financial reimbursement for radiation-related illnesses if time runs up.
Some Missouri lawmakers have been vocal about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, also known as RECA.
Senator Josh Hawley tweeted in part saying, "The House has done nothing."
Congresswoman Cori Bush shared this statement:
“Speaker Johnson’s decision to let the Senate-passed, bipartisan, expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act die in his lap is abhorrent. It symbolizes the latest failure in an already extensive, decades-long history of government negligence regarding the Manhattan Project's radioactive waste dumped into our communities. The Senate's passage of the RECA expansion legislation offered a glimmer of hope, a chance to start righting these wrongs for communities like St. Louis who have been left out in the dust, but House Republican leadership callously failed to bring it to a vote. Let me be clear: despite their cruelty, our fight is far from over. We will not stop fighting for those in my district and nationwide who deserve compensation for their suffering. Yesterday, I took action by cosponsoring an amendment to the NDAA that would incorporate RECA, and I remain deeply engaged in discussions with key congressional allies to ensure its passage, covering every individual affected. This is not the end.”
Just 24 hours before the RECA expiration, several lawmakers, including Congresswoman Bush and Ann Wagner submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or the NDAA.
This would try to extend and expand RECA to include Missouri and other parts of the country.
On Friday, 5 On Your Side spoke to the advocacy group, Just Moms STL, who has been fighting for justice for over a decade.
Friday afternoon, co-founders Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel hopped on a strategy call to see what's next for the dying program.
"It's disappointing, it's heartbreaking, it's sad," a frustrated Nickel said.
All the feelings for a pending failure.
"We are playing a nasty game of RECA wack-a-mole, which is basically we have different versions of RECA," Chapman said.
Some of those versions include Missouri, others would expand the existing program to two more years.
The ideal goal for the moms was to expand and extend RECA to include contaminated parts of the St. Louis region.
The U.S. Senate passed an expanded version twice through Hawley's bill, only for it to sit in the House for months.
The bill would have extended the program for six years. Advocates said the program had not been updated in over two decades and that's why it was important to improve it. The bill would also cover parts of the country that had been excluded for decades.
The updated version would not only compensate radioactive waste victims but also provide health screenings.
"Missouri still has so much radioactive waste that people are being exposed to daily here and there is so much outrageous stuff, no signs along the (Coldwater) creek," Chapman said.
The 14-mile Coldwater Creek was contaminated by radioactive material from the first atomic bomb, after improper storage of the material.
Besides north St. Louis County, other impacted areas include West Lake Landfill and Weldon Spring.
"This is ridiculous, we have a good bill sitting on the desk of the Speaker, just to be voted on. Put it on the floor and vote it on," Nickel said.
The price point may be the problem and the advocacy group wants a chance to fix it.
"Call us and say this is what we’d like to get it down to, let us have an opportunity to meet that, we haven’t heard that from anybody!" Chapman said.
The two women have dedicated their own time and money to head to Washington D.C. seven times in a year.
"We're not giving up and you know what, we've had to tap into retirement accounts, but we'll do it again!" she said.
Christen Commuso, a community outreach specialist with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, also has been a part of the fight. Commuso has been to D.C. countless times as well.
“Every day that passes without Congress acting to make the needed improvements to RECA, someone in this country is having the worst day of their life,” said Commuso. "They are getting a diagnosis of a radiation-related disease; they are getting tested to see if the cancer has finally come back; they are trying to figure out what bill they can afford not to pay this month to pay for medical care; or, like me, they are rationing their medical care and skipping an appointment and hoping they’ll be okay. People are not randomly getting sick. Our government poisoned us. We deserve help.”
This moment can feel helpless, but Chapman and Nickel said they aren't hopeless.
"The message to St. Louis is the residents, thank you for sharing your stories, they have worked. Now, Congress has to do the ridiculous dance that it does around everything," Chapman said.
The Department of Justice will continue to process claims postmarked by June 10.
If it does end, the advocacy group plans to go back to Washington D.C. next week to continue finding a path forward for RECA.
"That date is the expiration date but we do know claims can still be filed up until Monday, so obviously there could still be talks made past that time," Nickel said.