The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed Senate bill 4119 on May 11 to extend the deadline for claims filed under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.  The House’s approval came after the bill passed the U.S. Senate on April 28.  The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.  Without the reauthorization, the program is set to expire in July 2022.

Yet this bill, introduced by the sponsor Mike Lee (R-UT), only extends the program for two years and does not include any expansion of eligibility to those who have long awaited compensation. In September 2021, more comprehensive bipartisan RECA amendment bills — H.R. 5338 and S. 2798, introduced by Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM-3) with 68 cosponsors in the House and by Mike Crapo(R-ID) with 18 cosponsors in the Senate — have not yet been moved to any further.  The extension barely saves the chance of the expansion.