Radiation victims come to DC pushing for compensation

“Beginning September 22, more than 50 members of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo and Hopi tribe will drive roughly 30 hours by bus from New Mexico to Washington, D.C., to demand House Speaker Mike Johnson allow a vote on legislation reauthorizing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). The bill would aid victims of U.S. nuclear tests, uranium mining and nuclear waste storage. The group, from New Mexico and Arizona, includes former uranium workers, veterans, and people who lived downwind of nuclear weapons tests who are suffering from radiation-related illnesses, such as thyroid cancer and lung disease… [t]he bill has sat on Speaker Johnson’s desk since March, when it was passed by a bipartisan supermajority in the Senate.”