Hawley Holds RECA Victory Rally to Celebrate Justice for Victims of Radioactive Waste

Hawley Holds RECA Victory Rally to Celebrate Justice for Victims of Radioactive Waste

Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) led a RECA victory rally in St. Louis to celebrate new funding for radioactive waste survivors in Missouri and other states. His announcement comes after a two-year battle that resulted in theRadiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expansion in the "Big, Beautiful Bill," which President Trump signed into law last week.

The Senator's expansion provision revives RECA for survivors, allows tens of thousands of new claimants to receive life-saving assistance-including those across Missouri-and protects the program for years to come. For two years,Senator Hawley has led the fight to secure funding for survivors of nuclear contamination across the country, passing a reauthorization bill through the Senate in July 2023 and March 2024.

"It wasn't just the people of Missouri who had waited for seventy years to have justice done. It was the people of the Navajo Nation; It was the people of Utah; It was the people of New Mexico; It was the people of Idaho; It was the uranium miners and atomic veterans from all over the country, who have been waiting for decades for the federal government to finally own up to what it had done," Senator Hawley said. "RECA is the government saying, 'what we did was wrong. Lying to you was wrong, and we are finally going to make it right.'"

Displaying the nationwide impact of the legislation, Senator Hawley was joined at the RECA victory rally by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren; Missouri RECA activists Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel; New Mexico downwinders Maggie Billman and Laura Greenwood; Arizona downwinder Sherrie Hanna; Keith Kiefer of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, and many more.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren thanked Senator Hawley in his remarks for leading the fight in Congress to obtain compensation for radiation victims in Missouri and across the nation.

"Senator Hawley, thank you to you and your team and your constant willingness to champion on behalf of all of America. Especially people that have sacrificed so much for this country. So on behalf of the Navajo Nation and the Navajo people, I want to say thank you," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said.

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