{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-announces-new-legislation-compensate-victims-nuclear-waste-st-louis-area/", "Hawley Announces New Legislation to Compensate Victims of Nuclear Waste in St. Louis Area", "2023-07-12", "2023", "2023-07", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced new legislation to create a fund for the victims of radioactive contamination in the St. Louis region. His announcement followed a disturbing new report that details how the federal government and companies responsible for Manhattan Project waste in the region \u201cwere aware of health risks, spills, improperly stored contaminants and other problems but often ignored them.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe people of St. Louis have borne the burden of [the Manhattan Project] \u2014 and now it\u2019s time for their government to make it right. What needs to happen is this: The federal government needs to pay the medical bills for any St. Louis resident who has contracted cancer or an autoimmune virus or a genetic disorder because of exposure to radioactive contamination,\u201d said Senator Hawley.\n\nHe continued, \u201cI will introduce legislation that will provide this support, that will provide this justice to the people of St. Louis. [\u2026] This is not a handout to the people of St. Louis. They\u2019re not asking for a giveaway. They\u2019re asking for some basic fairness. When their government imposes on them diseases and disaster because of nuclear contamination, the least their government can do is to make it right. And I will come to this floor as long as it takes until we make it right for the men and women and children of St. Louis.\u201d\n\nClick here or above for full remarks.\n\nBackground\n\nSenator Hawley has consistently advocated on behalf of the Coldwater Creek community. Most recently, Senator Hawley\u2019s legislation mandating the clean up of Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District and radioactive waste testing passed the U.S. Senate. Biden\u2019s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also vowed to support it.\n\nIn March, Senator Hawley delivered remarks on the Senate floor and attempted to unanimously pass his legislation to clean up Jana Elementary School and test the surrounding buildings in the Hazelwood School District, but it was blocked.\n\nIn early March, Senator Hawley called out the Biden Administration for its lack of action on the Jana Elementary School cleanup.\n\nIn February, Senator Hawley introduced the Justice for Jana Elementary Act following an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing where he pushed the DOE for answers on the radioactive waste found at the school.\n\nIn January, Senator Hawley and Congresswoman Cori Bush sent a letter to USACE Lieutenant General Spellmon calling for additional radioactive testing of Hazelwood School District\u2019s properties.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:25:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-announces-new-legislation-compensate-victims-nuclear-waste-st-louis-area/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8696680888533592, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}