This week, activists are on Capitol Hill to urge Congress to renew and expand a program that provides compensation to people who continue to suffer the effects of the U.S. nuclear testing program.

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Dozens of advocates stormed the Capitol this week to continue pushing for Congress to revive a program that provides compensation to people who have long suffered the effects of America’s nuclear testing.

A group of Native Americans and people suffering from the effects of Windward nuclear testing are calling on Congress to revive the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), a 34-year-old federal program that expired on June 7.

Supporters say the program has been a lifeline for people sickened by the U.S. nuclear testing program, including so-called nuclear veterans. A group of about 50 people boarded a bus in Albuquerque earlier this week to begin a 30-hour drive to Washington, D.C., to make their case.

They are trying to persuade House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to vote on a bill passed by the Senate in March to renew and expand the program, but they are facing resistance from some House Republicans who have raised concerns about the program’s cost.

“What’s really difficult for us is that if Speaker Johnson blocks this bill, he’s turning away over 50 Republican districts that would benefit from RECA,” advocate Tina Cordova told NPR. “They’re portraying it as a money issue… while we’re paying for it with our lives.”

RECA advocates who will be on Capitol Hill this week include members of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo and Hopi tribes, as well as former uranium miners and a group of St. Louis women affected by contamination issues in their community.

Proponents say those affected by the tests suffered from a variety of radiation-related illnesses, including thyroid cancer and lung disease.

“So many in my family have suffered from radiation-induced cancer,” Maggie Billiman, one of the trip organizers, said in a statement from the group.

Billiman and Cordova are described as “downwinders,” people who suffered from the effects of nuclear radiation that was carried from the original test site to other areas in the surrounding area.

Billiman’s father, a Navajo code talker in World War II and downwinder, died of stomach cancer. She was part of a group that made a similar trip to Capitol Hill earlier this year.

The group will be in Washington, D.C., for several days. The events will begin with a briefing followed by a march to the Capitol on Tuesday morning. They will also join members who have championed the plan, including Senators Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), as well as several members of the House of Representatives. They will also hold demonstrations at the Capitol, including prayers, songs, dancing and a vigil for several days.

On Wednesday, the group hopes to present Johnson with medical records detailing the costs incurred by survivors and their families to treat radiation-related illnesses, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony on the steps of the Capitol that evening.

“We are heading for financial ruin … after being basically bombed by our own government and then left to deal with the consequences,” Cordova said. “We regularly hold bake sales and garage sales to cover our expenses. That’s all we have left in the greatest nation on earth. We were bombed as American citizens. … And for Speaker Johnson to say it’s going to cost too much is completely unconscionable.”