Washington, D.C
House leaves Washington without approving radiation exposure compensation act
With the House not set to return to Washington until next week, the clock has run out on time to extend and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
“It is sitting in the House, the House needs to act,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in an interview with Spectrum News. “If the House doesn’t act, it’s going to be on the House. They’re going to have to explain to the American people why they don’t want to help our veterans, they don’t want to help folks exposed to radiation — they’re going to deny compensation to people who are dependent on it all their lives. I mean, this is crazy.”
Hawley, who has been leading the charge for RECA expansion in the Senate alongside Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., has expressed frustration over recent weeks by the lack of commitment from House leadership to bring up the bill for a vote, considering it passed the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan measure not once, but twice.
Under the proposed RECA expansion, coverage would be included for uranium miners and individuals who were “downwinders” from the testing and mining sites, including New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Guam, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska. In Missouri, it would cover people tied to almost two dozen ZIP codes who may have been sickened by contamination from uranium enrichment in the St. Louis dating back to the Manhattan Project. The bill would cost $50 billion over five years and add as many as 600,000 new claimants.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed Wednesday that work to remediate a small portion of a contaminated waterway where nuclear waste was dumped in North St. Louis County resulted in removing more than 7,000 cubic yards of soil–enough to fill eight Olympic-sized swimming pools. The entire Coldwater Creek corridor may not be fully remediated until the late 2030s.
According to the Department of Justice, which facilitates the claim program, the 1992 law has helped over 41,000 individuals access approximately $2.6 billion in funds to help pay for their medical bills for treating cancer and other illnesses traced to exposure to radiation waste.
Claims need to be postmarked by June 10 to be considered to receive compensation.
“If you’ve been poisoned by the federal government, if the government has exposed you to nuclear radiation, and that is so many people in Missouri, the government ought to make it right. They ought to help at the least with your medical bills — pay em. And that’s what my bill would do,” said Hawley.
“The state of Missouri has been lied to for 50 and 60 years. They’ve told us — the federal government — there was no radiation exposure in Missouri. That was a lie. They said it’s all cleaned up. That was a lie. They said we couldn’t get sick because of it. That was a lie. Now our schools are closed, we’ve got the highest rates of breast cancer in the nation, some of the highest rates of childhood cancers and other diseases associated with radiation. This needs to be fixed. It should have been fixed 50 years ago.”
“We shouldn’t have to beg for people to be taken care of because they were exposed to radioactive waste,” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo. said bluntly Wednesday. “World War II is still killing people right now.”
Bush and other advocates are claiming a small victory in that a bill that would have only extended the existing program did not make it to the floor. They believe an extension would have killed momentum for expansion.
But past experience with other pieces of legislation may not back that theory up.
“History has shown that there’s been a number of things, such as the assault weapons ban and, others — such as the Patriot Act — that become much more difficult to reauthorize if you don’t give them the automatic extension,” said Todd Belt, a professor and Political Management program director at the George Washington University,
“Generally, when the government has done something that has caused harm to people, you think of the burn pits legislation that was recently passed, you usually get real big bipartisan support for it. So it’s somewhat unusual that you would see some recalcitrance from the House to move on this Senate bill.”
Advocates for expansion traveled to a political event featuring House Speaker Mike Johnson in Peoria, Illinois last weekend hoping to land a meeting in Washington this week. Once it became clear that no legislation was going to move in time to beat Friday’s deadline, those plans changed and they will instead be back at the Capitol next week.
Johnson’s staff did not respond to new questions about the possibility of a vote on the expansion bill this week.
Hawley said the fight is far from over.
“If it takes as long as I’m in the Senate, I will not stop until this is made right.”
Spectrum News’ Angi Gonzalez contributed to this report.
Washington, D.C
Janeese Lewis George leads vote count in Washington, DC Democratic mayoral primary
Darren Lyn
18 June 2026•Update: 18 June 2026
Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George currently leads the vote tally as of Wednesday versus six other candidates in the Washington, DC Democratic mayoral primary, and if victorious, could be following in the footsteps of the most notable democratic socialist in the United States — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
With 73% of the ballots counted since Tuesday’s primary election in the nation’s capital, the Associated Press (AP) has Lewis George leading with 52.9% of the vote. Her closest challenger is Kenyan McDuffie, who currently holds 36.5%.
The mayor’s office in the District of Columbia has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold, and political experts have said that any Republican challenger is not expected to put up meaningful competition for the mayor’s seat in the general election.
If Lewis George keeps her current lead and wins the majority, she will head to the November election as the favorite to replace three-term Mayor Muriel Bowser, who decided not to run for a fourth term.
A victory for Lewis George would be to the ire of US President Donald Trump, who told reporters that he could attempt a federal takeover of Washington if she won the mayor’s race, according to local media reports.
“We won’t put up with it,” Trump told reporters at a news conference.
Yet Trump has already seen a democratic socialist take power in America’s largest city, with the election of Mamdani as mayor of New York City.
Not to be outdone, the race for the mayor’s office in Los Angeles, California — the second largest city in the US by population — has a democratic socialist, Nithya Raman, in the runoff to vie for the position in November’s general election. Raman will face incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who narrowly edged out Raman in the primary 34.3% to 29.0%.
In California’s 14th congressional district, two candidates will head to a runoff election to replace former US Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress in April amid allegations of sexual assault, including rape.
Aisha Wahab secured the first runoff spot on Tuesday with 38.3% of the vote, with the AP on Wednesday calling the second position to go to Melissa Hernandez, who tallied 17.2%.
The runoff election will be held on Aug. 18, with the winner finishing out the rest of Swalwell’s term.
Washington, D.C
Takeaways from the first ranked choice voting election in Washington, DC – FairVote
At time of writing, the Associated Press estimates that around 64% of votes have been counted. Races where no candidate wins a majority of first choices will proceed to a ranked choice voting count – most likely the at-large Council and Ward 1 Democratic primaries. With RCV, all nominees will have support from a majority of their party – as will the winner in an at-large Council special election.
Mayor
In the closely watched mayoral race, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George leads with 52.8% of voters’ first choices, followed by former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie at 36.6%. If Lewis George remains above 50% as the remaining votes are counted, a ranked choice tabulation will not be necessary to determine the winner.
Congressional delegate
Five candidates ran in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Councilmember Robert White won that election with 63.2% of first choices. Councilmember Brooke Pinto came in second with 21.5% of first choices.
At-large Council Democratic primary
Nine candidates ran for the Democratic nomination to succeed at-large Councilmember Anita Bonds. No candidate has won a majority of first choices. Oye Owolewa leads with 33.8%, followed by Lisa Raymond at 15.2% and Kevin Chavous at 13.8%. The result will likely be determined by a ranked choice voting count.
| Candidate | Share of first choices |
| Oye Owolewa | 33.8% |
| Lisa Raymond | 15.2% |
| Kevin B Chavous | 13.8% |
| Greg Jackson | 11.0% |
| Candace Tiana Nelson | 7.7% |
| Dwight Davis | 6.0% |
| Fred Hill | 5.4% |
| Dyana N. M. Forester | 3.7% |
| Leniqua’dominique Jenkins | 3.0% |
| Write-in | 0.4% |
In a choose-one election, Owolewa would have won the nomination despite 66% of voters voting for another candidate. In 2022, for instance, Councilmember Anita Bonds won the Democratic primary for this seat with only 36% of first choices. Now, ranked choice voting will ensure the nominee – whether Owolewa or someone else – has majority support.
At-large Council special election
In the special election for at-large Council, former Councilmember Elissa Silverman is leading with 54.8% of first choices, followed by appointed Councilmember Doni Crawford and Board of Education President Jacque Patterson, with 25% and 19% respectively. If Silverman maintains a majority of first choices, there will be no ranked choice tabulation.
Ward 1
In the competitive Democratic primary for Ward 1 councilmember, Aparna Raj leads with 47% of first choices. Depending on remaining ballots, Raj may win with a majority of first choices, or the winner may be determined by a ranked choice voting count.
Candidate
Share of first choices
Aparna Raj
46.7%
Michael Trindade Deramo
20.3%
Rashida Brown
17.2%
Jackie Reyes Yanes
10.0%
Terry Lynch
5.8%
Write-in
0.1%
Notably, in three Council races – the at-large Council Democratic primary, at-large Council special election, and Ward 1 Democratic primary – candidates cross-endorsed each other, asking voters to rank each other on their ballots. Past elections show that voters often listen to cross-endorsements by candidates they support, so it’s possible candidates who cross-endorsed will benefit when their races go to RCV tallies.
DC’s ranked choice voting elections offer a sharp contrast with the District’s recent past, in which candidates regularly won key primaries without majority support. Since 2012, every districtwide office and six of the eight wards have seen Democratic primaries won with less than 50% of the vote. Since 2020, Ward 2 and Ward 7 have had Democratic Council primaries won with less than 30% of the vote.
FairVote will post more analysis of the DC election over the coming week. In the meantime, visit Grow Democracy DC to learn more about RCV in DC.
Washington, D.C
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