Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is picking a very public fight with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over a bill to compensate radiation victims in his home state of Missouri.
The freshman senator, a loud critic of Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is not known for holding his tongue when it comes to leadership. But he’s been unusually vocal about expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, opposed by Republicans due to its large price tag.
He’s tried to get the bill attached, so far unsuccessfully, to virtually every piece of must-pass legislation and has in recent days laid into Johnson, who will decide whether it gets a vote in the House.
Last week, Hawley delivered a floor speech attacking the speaker’s “indecision” on the program, which expires on June 7, and vents to Capitol Hill reporters that it would be “unconscionable” for him not to act. The bill, known as RECA, cleared the Senate in March in a 69-30 vote.
“We’re to the point where he’s not necessarily taking my phone calls,” Hawley joked of Johnson.
The two did speak shortly after Johnson became speaker in October, Hawley told the Washington Examiner in an interview, while a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and outside advocates have joined in the pressure campaign.
Johnson’s staff met with radiation victims on Thursday in a meeting hosted by Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-MO) office. Some of the bill’s sponsors subsequently held a press conference with advocates on Capitol Hill.
Johnson is publicly noncommittal on the legislation, which renews the compensation program for another five years and extends coverage to new states where the U.S. government tested nuclear weapons or mishandled waste, including New Mexico, Missouri, and Alaska.
Johnson’s staff seemed receptive to advocates’ appeals, according to a source familiar with the Thursday meeting.
But Hawley is facing the same opposition within his own party that delayed its passage in the Senate for months. Republicans believe the program should be winding down, not ramping up, and balk at its estimated cost of $50 billion.
“The speaker understands and appreciates Sen. Hawley’s position and is working closely with interested members and stakeholders to chart a path forward for the House,” a Johnson spokesman said.
Hawley has shown a willingness to compromise in the fight. Senate leadership allowed a floor vote on the legislation after Hawley agreed to, among other changes, cut its original price tag. He first proposed a $150 billion bill that was reduced by $100 billion in negotiations.
But central to Hawley’s strategy have been his attempts to strong-arm leadership to the negotiating table through a combination of public pressure and legislative obstruction.
Hawley has refused to allow the Senate to fast-track major pieces of legislation and, in a more controversial move, delayed the chamber from considering two former McConnell aides up for appointments in the Biden administration.
The tactics have drawn media attention to Hawley’s efforts, but they also prompted McConnell, who apparently had RECA stripped from last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, to drop his opposition.
The two worked out a compromise in which coverage was expanded to McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, in addition to the lower price tag.
Hawley is betting he can use the same playbook to wear down Johnson’s perceived resistance. He and more than two dozen of his colleagues sent a letter to the speaker at the end of April urging House action.
Meanwhile, this year’s NDAA may be the most realistic path for the program to be folded into a larger piece of legislation.
“I mean, they’re gonna have to act sooner or later, but I’m going to try to find every avenue I can, every vehicle to try to force them to act,” Hawley said of the House.
The fight Hawley’s picking is hardly his first. He’s made his mark as a foe of McConnell, voting against his last run for leader, and has leaned into his brand of conservative populism since his election to the Senate in 2018.
But this fight is notable for its bipartisanship. A bill that he calls his “top priority” has the support of lawmakers from Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
The relative lack of controversy to this crusade — Hawley has variously called for the World Trade Organization to be abolished and Big Tech to be broken up — works to his favor. It’s easier to build public pressure for a bill that would help cancer patients pay their medical bills.
But he’s also used that fact to make an electoral argument to Johnson.
“What I’ve said to him is, listen, this is a bipartisan bill. It’s great for Republicans, House Republicans who are in swing districts — in Texas, Arizona,” he said.
“But most importantly, it’s just good for the country and it shows the House can govern,” Hawley added.
His outreach goes beyond the speaker’s office, though Hawley says he is in “constant touch” with House Republican leadership.
“At all levels,” he said. “Up and down. Everybody’s well aware of where I stand.”
Hawley also drafted letters to more than 70 House Republicans whose districts would be affected by the legislation expiring.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), the Democratic sponsor of the Senate bill, has taken the lead on speaking to members on his side of the aisle, including conversations with House Democratic leadership.
“When this gets a House vote, I believe every Democratic member of the House of Representatives will vote for it,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Lujan’s home state of New Mexico is where the U.S. government conducted the Trinity nuclear test in the 1940s, popularized by the award-winning movie Oppenheimer. Uranium miners in his state, many from the Navajo Nation, were also exposed to the environmental toxin in the decades that followed.
In Missouri, communities near St. Louis and St. Charles, where the government stored radioactive waste, have also been affected. However, both states were excluded from the original radiation exposure fund.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“It left people out,” Lujan said. “And I would argue, probably intentionally.”
Hawley and Lujan invited RECA advocates to the State of the Union in March.