Congress considers spending limit for nuclear testing victims’ bill

EXCLUSIVE – The idea of placing a spending cap on an expiring program for nuclear testing victims is being discussed in the House as a way to address Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) reservations about the price tag of a proposed expansion of the fund.

Lawmakers from states not covered under the existing Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, in particular Missouri and New Mexico, have pressed Johnson to expand the program, which compensates those suffering from radiation-related illnesses attributed to government nuclear weapons testing or uranium mining.

However, the speaker, like some other Republicans, has resisted the proposal due to a 10-year cost estimate of $50 to $60 billion.

Johnson originally planned to place a “clean,” two-year reauthorization on the floor this week, ahead of a Monday deadline when the program expires, but he pulled the vote amid an uproar from the Missouri delegation, as first reported by the Washington Examiner.

His office has since been in active discussions with Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), who wants a House vote on the expansion crafted by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). His bill, a five-year extension that covers states including Missouri, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Alaska, passed the Senate in a 69-30 vote in March.

Expansion advocates have cycled through a variety of proposals, including possible cost offsets to the program, but the idea of capping the price tag entered the conversation after House leadership expressed that a compromise would have to be kept under $10 billion, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. In this scenario, the program would pay out claims until the cap was hit, at which point additional funding would have to be requested from Congress.

Four sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner that a cap is being discussed in the House, though the proposal is not formal and there is no firm dollar value associated with it. A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

It is not clear the idea of a cap will satisfy Johnson. House leadership has resisted prior offers, including offsets floated in December, when Hawley failed to get the RECA expansion included in Congress’s annual defense bill.

But Hawley, who negotiated a revised version of the bill with Senate GOP leadership earlier this year, has begun to reach out to Senate offices to gauge their appetite for a cap proposal, according to two sources familiar with the outreach.

The development follows Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) passing along a possible offset to the legislation in a previously unreported phone call to Johnson he placed on Hawley’s behalf late last week.

Scott, who opposes Hawley’s bill and voted against it in March, called Johnson as a courtesy, according to one source familiar with the call. Two sources confirmed that Hawley spoke with Scott about calling Johnson on his behalf.

The back channel conversation was due, in part, to Hawley’s souring relationship with Johnson. The two spoke about the program shortly after he became speaker in October, but Hawley has since publicly, and repeatedly, criticized Johnson for opposing the bill.

By contrast, Scott is among Johnson’s closest allies in the Senate.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), another member of the Missouri delegation, has joined Hawley in denouncing Johnson. She issued a statement on Friday, ahead of the program lapsing, calling it “abhorrent” that he would allow the program to “die in his lap.”

“It symbolizes the latest failure in an already extensive, decades-long history of government negligence regarding the Manhattan Project’s radioactive waste dumped into our communities,” said Bush, who represents the St. Louis area, which has struggled with nuclear waste contamination.

A standalone bill is not the only path forward for a RECA expansion. On Thursday, Bush introduced it as an amendment to this year’s annual defense bill, like Hawley did last year.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NV), who co-sponsored the radiation bill with Hawley in the Senate, has expressed new openness to a clean reauthorization, including the two-year extension supported by Johnson.

“Do you want to face those families and tell them that you let the program die?” he told the Washington Examiner in a brief hallway interview on Wednesday.

Hawley, for his part, has resisted a short-term patch as a nonstarter and is vowing to slow down consideration in the Senate if the patch comes up for a vote.

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In the past, expansion advocates have floated pay-fors including the idea of extending the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction licenses for commercial use of the electromagnetic spectrum, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

However, the proposal, plus another related to the Food and Drug Administration, are unlikely to be part of current negotiations, according to one source.