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Hoping that the third time is a charm (and not three strikes is an out), U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has stepped to the plate for possible radiation victims in the St. Louis area.

On Tuesday, Hawley drew a line in the Senate sand to get government money for people affected by radioactive waste sites in St. Louis and St. Charles counties.

Hawley has on two prior occasions helped the Senate pass legislation that would renew and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, known as “RECA.”

The law appropriated money to compensate those who were hurt by the nation’s nuclear production efforts in the 1940s and 1950s.

In the last attempt this summer to enact a new RECA, the Senate voted 69-30 to approve a bill that would extend the law past June and also include Missouri and other states in the list of qualified areas.

But the measure stalled in the House when some Republican lawmakers — including U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Town and Country — complained about the bill’s cost. The House ultimately declined to approve the package.

Wagner’s initial comments against RECA spurred Hawley to criticize her on social media.

In response, Wagner said she has long been in favor of expanding RECA, but simply was noting that others in the House had expressed reservations about the cost.

Now, on Tuesday, Hawley said that Capitol Hill chatter is hinting at a plan circulating around the U.S. House that would include an abbreviated version of RECA in a larger spending bill.

Labeling it a “backroom deal,” Hawley said the House proposal would exclude Missouri and most other states previously been designated by the Senate.

During his address to the Senate, Hawley specifically mentioned the closing of Jana Elementary School and the Coldwater Creek area of north St. Louis County.

“What has the government done for them? Nothing,” Hawley said.

Going on to call the House’s plan “flat-out wrong,” Hawley said if time-frame concessions are needed from the Senate to pass the bill by year’s end, he will officially object.

“No way,” Hawley said of speeding up the process. “I will stand in the way.”

But the abbreviated House bill may not make it as far as the Senate.

Spokesperson Arthur Bryant said Wagner "is going to make sure this extension is dead on arrival and goes nowhere unless it includes support for Missourians."