RECA added to Senate version of Trump spending bill
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The reauthorization and expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has been added to the U.S. Senate version of Republican President Donald Trump’s spending bill.
Missouri Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s office stated Thursday the reauthorization and expansion of RECA made it into the base text of the bill.
In 2024, the Senate voted 69-30 to include this version of RECA on the national defense spending bill. However, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson never put it to a vote before the program expired.
New Mexico Democratic U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez said enough representatives privately expressed support for RECA to her this year and last year. It’s just a matter of getting them to vote on it when it comes to the House.
“We are going to call them out on this, and we hope they step up and do what they have told me privately that they do support this legislation,” Fernandez said.
Hawley said he has also pressed the new president, in addition to Speaker Johnson, to overcome that hurdle this year.
Adding RECA to the bill is a double-edged sword for New Mexico’s all-Democrat delegation. While they support RECA, they have expressed deep opposition to the main principles of the bill at-large.
“It’s long past time for Congress to expand RECA to include the Tularosa Basin Downwinders. The Senate has already shown overwhelming bipartisan support for doing just that. But tying it to a bill that rips health care away from millions of Americans undermines RECA’s very purpose. We shouldn’t be confronting injustice by inflicting new harm,” Sen. Heinrich said in a statement.
The bill must pass the Senate. Then, the House will work out the differences between the Senate bill and their bill. Once both chambers agree upon a final version of the bill, it will go to the president’s desk to be signed into law.
If it survives negotiations and is signed into law, RECA would expand to people sickened after working in uranium mines in New Mexico and other states from 1972 onward. It would also expand compensation to people who lived downwind of nuclear testing in New Mexico, such as the Trinity Test. It also benefits families who have had suffered generational illnesses linked to radiation exposure.
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