First passed in 1990, RECA provided compensation and healthcare benefits to victims of radiation exposure due to uranium mining and nuclear testing. In attendance were U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM),

Diseases connected to uranium mining and nuclear testing continue to plague the Navajo and other tribes. The bill continuing the help they get dealing with the illnesses is stalled in the U.S. House.

Along with advocates, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council Crystalyne Curley, and the entire New Mexico congressional delegation are part of a campaign to pressure Johnson to bring legislation that would extend and expand a program that compensates people exposed to nuclear radiation who have developed specific medical conditions,

Navajo Nation tribal leaders are the latest to call on Congress to reinstate the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Navajo President Buu Nygren, Navajo National Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley, and dozens of others marched in Washington on Tuesday urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on the bill.

About 30 people are driving nearly 30 hours from New Mexico to Washington D.C. to protest in the hopes of getting RECA put before U.S. House vote.

A 2,000-mile bus trip has not deterred representatives from Southwest tribes from traveling to Washington, D.C., this week to support expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The law provides health screenings and financial aid for people sickened by testing of nuclear weapons in the 1940s.