ST. LOUIS—U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and advocates for victims of nuclear radiation came forward Wednesday with new language to reinstate and expand a federal program to pay for medical expenses of exposure victims. The new language would put a cap on mandatory spending for the Radiation Exposure Trust Fund.

The fund expired in June after the House failed to vote on a Hawley-sponsored measure which passed the Senate that would add residents of more than a dozen St. Louis area ZIP codes to a program that began in the early 1990s to compensate victims of radiation exposure. The fund has continued the work of paying out claims filed before it expired, Hawley said Wednesday.

House leadership balked at putting the legislation up for a vote, citing previous cost estimates of up to $60 billion over five years. The language released Wednesday includes a $5 billion cap on mandatory spending and would make anything over that a discretionary budget item. The language is the result of months of talks between Hawley, advocates, Speaker Mike Johnson and other House members.

Hawley said the changes, which he called the result of “a very reasonable compromise” don’t include reductions in the kind of illnesses covered under the previous Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or to the geographic locations covered. The new language includes almost two dozen St. Louis area ZIP codes, along with areas of Alaska, New Mexico, Utah, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, among others.

With less than 14 working days left in the current Congress, the question now is whether the revised language has any better chance at a standalone vote or of being added to any of the remaining pieces of legislation trying to get passed in the lame duck session. Hawley said Speaker Johnson has told him he wants to get a new RECA bill done in this session.

Hawley has alreadt called for RECA to be attached to a hurricane disaster relief bill, but said he was open to any potential path. Lawmakers are also expected to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government in operation into the new year.

President Biden has already signaled his support for compensating victims of nuclear radiation. During his Senate re-election campaign, Hawley told Spectrum News he believed the previous RECA legislation had the support of the entire Democratic caucus in the House.

A spokesperson for Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, Hawley said he’s enlisted Vice President-Elect JD Vance, currently the Senator from Ohio, which is now included in the legislation, to lobby Johnson for a vote. He said he’s also asked Matt Gaetz, the now-former congressman and President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, to encourage Johnson to put it on the floor. The Justice Department is responsible for managing the radiation compensation trust fund.

Advocates believe there is a growing strength in numbers.

“Our coalition continues to grow. We’re not going anywhere and we’re also not going to be split apart,” said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of JustMomsSTL. “We’re not going anywhere, we’re standing together and we’re more than a coalition. At this point we’re family.”