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Floor Speech

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Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, we are come to the end now of 2024, to the end of another legislative session--indeed, to the end of another Congress. And before this Congress congratulates itself on finishing its legislative work next week, I must come again here to this floor and remind my colleagues that hundreds of thousands of good Americans are still waiting for this Congress to act, waiting for justice to be done in their cases.

I am talking about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been poisoned by nuclear radiation by their own government. I am talking about the people of St. Louis, MO, an original uranium processing site dating back to the Manhattan Project 50, 60 years ago now.

The people of St. Louis did their duty proudly, patriotically; but the government didn't do right by them. What did the government do when the Manhattan Project was shut down? The government took that nuclear waste, that radioactive material, and dumped it into a public landfill. They allowed it to seep into our groundwater. They allowed it to be distributed across the region so that now, in the greater St. Louis area and the greater St. Charles area, thousands upon thousands of Missourians have been exposed to nuclear waste and radiation for decades.

And even as I stand here today, the radiation continues. The groundwater is still in doubt. Coldwater Creek is still contaminated. Just a few weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers discovered additional nuclear radioactive material under residents' homes in suburban St. Louis. Weldon Spring is still not fully remediated. And no one--I emphasize ``no one''--in the State of Missouri has received a dime in compensation from the Federal Government for the decades of radioactive exposure that this government forced upon them.

And the people of Missouri are not alone. The same story is repeated over and over in places like New Mexico and Arizona and in Idaho and in Colorado and in Wyoming and Montana--and I could go on--hundreds of thousands of Americans, exposed through no fault of their own, many of them veterans, I might add, many of them miners who went to work in uranium mines to provide the critical material that allowed us to support our nuclear program, that allowed us to win both the Second World War and the Cold War.

And what has the U.S. Government done for these good Americans-- veterans, laymen, one and all? What has the government done for them? Nothing. It has exposed them to nuclear radiation and done nothing.

That is why this body finally acted this year, passing with a huge bipartisan majority legislation that would finally compensate and honor those Americans who served their country, who gave their health and in many cases, yes, gave their lives for this country's national security as part of our nuclear program.

Mr. President, while this body has acted, the House has not. And here we are now, at the end of this calendar year, at the end of this legislative session; and because the House has waited and because the House has stalled and because the House has failed to act, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program has now fully expired--fully expired--so that no American, no veteran, no one across the country who has been exposed by the government to this radioactive waste--not a single person has been compensated for the cancers that they have contracted, compensated for the loved ones whom they have lost to radioactive-related diseases--nobody. It is completely dark. No one is getting anything.

And now we are told, Mr. President, that at this eleventh hour, after this body has passed legislation, not once but twice, to fairly compensate these good Americans, after this body has acted to ensure that these good Americans get the justice that they deserve, now, at this eleventh hour, after the House has allowed the program to expire, we are told that now House leadership is considering a backroom deal, a backroom deal to be shoved into an end-of-the-year package next week that would select just a few counties in one State, the State of Utah-- just a few counties to compensate and exclude everybody else. I cannot emphasize to the Presiding Officer enough what an offense this would be.

For months now, victims have met with House leadership and negotiated with them a path forward. I have negotiated with House leadership. Many here have engaged in this effort to find a way to get the House to act and compensate these good Americans who have been poisoned. And now, at this last minute, for House leadership to be preparing, as reports indicate they are, to shove down the throats of these victims across the country a backroom deal that excludes almost all of them--almost all of them--is not only unacceptable, but it is absolutely offensive. It is unjust. It is wrong.

President Reagan used to say that sometimes there really are simple answers, just not easy ones. Let's be direct about this. What House leadership is considering here, there is a simple way to describe it: It is wrong. It is just flat out wrong. There is no more nuance needed than that.

And who will suffer if House leadership puts up a backroom deal, rigged for only a few insiders, excluding most of the country? Who will suffer? I will tell you who will suffer. It will be people like the young children of Jana Elementary in my home State of Missouri, an elementary school that had to close over a year ago because of continuing radioactive contamination right there in the St. Louis area. This elementary school is right near the creek that is still contaminated. The entire school had to shut down. Who knows how many children had been exposed, by the way, before that happened. The entire school closed. It is still closed. It will remain closed, and every child will remain uncompensated and exposed until the House chooses to act.

Think about Leslie Begay, a member of the Navajo Nation. No one contributed more to the defense of this country than the proud members of the Navajo Nation. In the Second World War, in the Cold War, and still today, their rates of volunteer service for our military are higher than any other community in the entire country. And nobody suffered more from the fallout of the nuclear program than the Navajo Nation, including Leslie, who has had a double lung transplant.

If the House fails to act, if the House forces a backroom deal through this body, Leslie and thousands of others like him will be uncompensated, will be unhonored, will be unrecognized. It is wrong, Mr. President.

Consider Claire, a young girl from Missouri, diagnosed with a radiation-related illness when she was born, going through chemotherapy when she was just a child, age 2.

Consider Bernice Gutierrez, from the great State of New Mexico. Every member of Bernice's family for three generations now has had cancer and multiple radiation-related illnesses because they were downwind of the original Oppenheimer tests that carried that radioactive nuclear cloud over so much of our country.

Consider Zach Visintine from the State of Missouri: born with cancer, died at the age of 2. He never had a chance. Why? Well, because his mother grew up along Coldwater Creek in the St. Louis region of Missouri that is still, to this day, contaminated.

None of these people--none of them--have been helped by their government with the expenses, with the losses, with the pain that the government forced on them--not a one of them.

Mr. President, it is time to act, and I want to be crystal clear about this. If the House persists, if House leadership persists and attempts to force into a CR package a partial, backroom, special- interest deal that excludes these good people, I will object; and if they come to this body asking for a time agreement at the end of the session to pass that package, I will object.

I want to be clear about this. There is no way forward for a partial, backroom deal--no way. I will stand in the way, on behalf of every one of these Americans, as long as it takes, until justice is done. This is the time. This body has acted, and I call on the House to act. What we should do instead of their backroom deal is pass what this body has already passed: generous compensation--fair, just compensation, with a spending limit, that will fairly honor, recognize, and help these good Americans who deserve it. This isn't a handout; this is justice. This is recognition of what these good Americans have done and what they have suffered.

You know, we are near upon Christmas now, and it is sort of old- fashioned, but it used to be around Christmastime sometimes we would talk about the Christmas feeling or the Christian feeling. Well, I would just observe this: What does that Christian feeling consist of if not, in the words of Micah, ``doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God''? This is a chance, I might just say, to do just that: to do justice, to show kindness, to fulfill our duty to our fellow Americans.

The Scripture admonishes us to be not just hearers but doers as well. As this year comes to a close, let's be doers of justice. Let's be demonstrators of kindness. Let's do what is right by our fellow Americans. Let's honor our countrymen for what they have done. Let's right this wrong finally, this 50-year wrong. Let's right it. Let's end the year and end the Congress with this historic righting of a wrong, and then we can say to our constituents and to our fellow Americans ``Merry Christmas.'' Then we can say we have truly done our jobs here.

Until that time, Mr. President, I will be here, I will be standing, and I will be advocating on their behalf.

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