While advocates are thankful Congress expanded the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 2025, they said Tuesday last year’s action did not go far enough.
As a result, James Moylan (R-Guam), a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and other House members representing atomic veterans and downwinders, plan to propose another RECA expansion within days, they said during a press conference Tuesday.
A version of the RECA expansion in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, did not include Guam partly because some members of Congress did not realize Guam is part of the United States, Moylan said during the press conference.
The law to compensate nuclear weapons and nuclear waste workers for radiation-related illnesses expired in 2024. A reauthorization bill had passed the Senate but the House never acted upon the measure in 2024. Thanks to the 2025 expansion, the act is once again providing one-payments to qualifying individuals.
Other lawmakers participating in the Tuesday press conference included Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Rep. Wesley Bell, (D-Mo.) and Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.),
The upcoming measure would expand the number of radiation illnesses covered, increase the number of people eligible for RECA and make it easier to file a claim, they said during the press conference.
“This week, on July 16th, we mark two solemn milestones in our nation’s history,” said Mac Hamilton of Rethink Media, who moderated the press conference. “It is the 81st anniversary of the Trinity Test — the detonation of the world’s first nuclear bomb on American soil, the anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill — the largest nuclear accident in US history — and it is National Atomic Veterans Day.”
The 2025 measure left the job half-finished, Hamilton said, and excluded victims of radiation illness from Guam to Arizona.