Reca Extension Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, in 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, to provide restitution to individuals who got sick from exposure to radiation as a result of the atomic bomb testing between 1945 and 1963. The goal of Congress in 1990 was to provide compensation to people whose health ailments were caused by the U.S. Government's activities.

This intention can be seen in the one-time nature of the payments and in the specific geographic, time, and disease requirements for compensation. Congress last extended and expanded RECA in 2000 and directed that the fund sunset in July of 2022. As that date has drawn closer, there have been bipartisan and bicameral conversations about potentially extending and expanding RECA.

This bill is a clean, 2-year extension of that statute. It does not change the terms; it simply maintains the status quo to provide more time for these conversations to take place. As Congress continues to consider RECA, we must keep in mind the evidence before us.

In 2005, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine completed a congressionally mandated study and concluded that Congress should not simply expand eligibility in RECA based on geography alone. As this study explained:

In most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radiation fallout was a substantial or contributing cause to any developing cancer.

No one here disputes that if the Federal Government recklessly took actions that led to our citizens getting cancer, we should provide compensation for that harm. That is why Congress passed RECA in 1990 and why it was extended in 2000. However, this program should not become an endless program in the name of unclear evidence and political expediency.

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