The Department of Justice recently launched an online portal for radioactive waste survivors to submit claims for assistance through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).
“GREAT NEWS – the DOJ has launched the online portal for radioactive waste survivors to submit their RECA claims,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of the bipartisan advocates for RECA, said Jan. 29 on website X. “My team has been working towards justice for these Missourians for over two years – it’s been a long time coming.”
RECA lapsed in June 2024 after the House of Representatives failed to take up the measure after it passed the Senate. The RECA language included in the reconciliation package, keeps the compensation program going through 2028. In April 2024 a large bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate, including now-Vice President JD Vance, wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule a vote on the legislation.
The final version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the budget reconciliation package signed into law by President Donald Trump, includes a long-sought bipartisan proposal to extend and expand RECA to include compensation and health care to more parts of Missouri, as well as uranium miners in Western states being treated for cancer from exposure to radiation.