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U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley marches on to deepen his workingman footprint before the November election.

National media last week reported that Missouri’s senior GOP senator proposed two pieces of legislation that could resonate with voters in the state, and especially in the St. Louis area.

First, Hawley announced his plan to  reauthorizing and expanding federal laws governing radiation-exposure compensation to every bill on the Senate floor.

Not only does Hawley want to expand the period for getting compensation past 2024, he also wants the legislation to include Missouri.

At issue with Hawley is the processing of uranium by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. The company processed uranium ore at its North Second Street plant for the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II.

Some of the waste was temporarily stored in north St. Louis County, where it contaminated areas along Coldwater Creek; some was buried at West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton.

In Weldon Spring, some people who developed cancers and other illnesses have blamed exposure to Mallinckrodt’s operations there from 1957 to 1966.

Hawley last year succeeded in getting a similar measure attached to the U.S. Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, but the language was removed by a conference committee of senators and members of the U.S. House ironing out differences between the two chambers’ versions of the defense bill. 

A consistent supporter of residents’ efforts to get compensation, Hawley has invited West Lake Landfill activist Dawn Chapman, a co-founder of Just Moms STL, to be his guest Thursday at the State of the Union address.

Hawley separately has introduced a bill that on Chinese vehicle imports.

The proposal would hike the base tariff rate to 100%, from its current 2.5%. Translated, that means the overall tariff on imported Chinese autos would be 125%, instead of the current 27.5% currently. The tariff bump also would apply to vehicles made in Mexico by Chinese-based automakers.

Last year, Hawley visited workers walking a picket line in Wentzville during the United Auto Workers’ strike against the “Big Three� auto companies in the U.S.

Hawley is seeking reelection to a second Senate term in November, where his likely Democratic challenger will be Lucas Kunce of Independence.