U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is holding up compensation for generations of Americans who developed cancer after exposure to the nation’s nuclear weapons program, several members of Congress said Tuesday.

Advocates for an expired radiation compensation bill pressed a group of western Republican House members, many of them facing tough re-elections, to support a reauthorized, expanded version of the

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.

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.

Local Indigenous communities that have been impacted by long-term uranium exposure will be traveling to Washington D.C. on Sunday to demand that Congress pass a bill that will compensate those exposed to radiation.

Activists for victims of the nation’s nuclear development and testing programs descended on Washington this week in hopes of pushing forward legislation to renew and expand a compensation fund that remains stalled in the House over cost concerns.