WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a demonstration of solidarity, Speaker Crystalyne Curley of the Navajo Nation Council and Executive Director Justin Ahasteen of the Navajo Nation Washington Office, joined forces with U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Capitol Hill to fervently champion the extension and amplification of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which is on the brink of expiration in July this year.
Despite the Senate’s passage of an amendment last year to weave the RECA provisions into a national security spending bill, its progression was stalled in the House.
Standing amid a group of staunch advocates from Arizona and Missouri, Hawley announced his intent to strategically incorporate the RECA amendments into an imminent Senate appropriations bill. These comprehensive provisions seek not only to include post-1971 uranium workers and core drillers and to extend RECA until 2040 but also to acknowledge renal cancer as a compensable disease, permit the amalgamation of work histories, delineate the expansion of eligibility regions for downwind exposure, and enhance compensation for claimants—including downwinders—affected by atmospheric testing. The amendments also advocate for the acceptance of affidavits to verify work history, physical presence, and onsite participation, and they underscore the necessity for an Epidemiological Impact Study to thoroughly investigate the repercussions on uranium miners, their kin and others exposed in non-occupational settings.
Curley asserted the urgent need for legislative action.
Information provided by OPVP.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a demonstration of solidarity, Speaker Crystalyne Curley of the Navajo Nation Council and Executive Director Justin Ahasteen of the Navajo Nation Washington Office, joined forces with U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Capitol Hill to fervently champion the extension and amplification of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which is on the brink of expiration in July this year.
Despite the Senate’s passage of an amendment last year to weave the RECA provisions into a national security spending bill, its progression was stalled in the House.
Standing amid a group of staunch advocates from Arizona and Missouri, Hawley announced his intent to strategically incorporate the RECA amendments into an imminent Senate appropriations bill. These comprehensive provisions seek not only to include post-1971 uranium workers and core drillers and to extend RECA until 2040 but also to acknowledge renal cancer as a compensable disease, permit the amalgamation of work histories, delineate the expansion of eligibility regions for downwind exposure, and enhance compensation for claimants—including downwinders—affected by atmospheric testing. The amendments also advocate for the acceptance of affidavits to verify work history, physical presence, and onsite participation, and they underscore the necessity for an Epidemiological Impact Study to thoroughly investigate the repercussions on uranium miners, their kin and others exposed in non-occupational settings.
Curley asserted the urgent need for legislative action.
Information provided by OPVP.