Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 5895 to provide $1 million in additional critical funding for the VA to conduct educational outreach to veterans about the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry.

Our military uses burn pits to eliminate tons of waste, including chemicals, plastics, medical waste, human waste, computers--you name it--creating giant plumes of black smoke containing carcinogens, particulate matter, and other toxins.

For years, the Department of Defense used burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, even while recognizing that exposure to burn pits may pose a health risk to our troops since about the late 1970s. Now veterans all across the country--young veterans in their twenties and thirties-- are developing rare and severe pulmonary diseases, cancers, and autoimmune diseases despite living healthy lifestyles, being healthy enough to be sent to war, and not having any other risk factors.

This may bring up thoughts of Agent Orange that our Vietnam veterans faced. Burn pits exposure and the negative health outcomes are being described by our veterans as our modern-day Agent Orange, and we must learn from our past mistakes and act now.

For more than a decade, veterans exposed to burn pits and their families have been given the runaround to get the care they have earned and deserve and to have their concerns taken seriously. My commonsense amendment would provide additional funding for the VA to conduct an educational outreach campaign on the burn pits registry to ensure more veterans register.

The purpose of the registry is to collect data from veterans and servicemembers exposed to burn pits to highlight health patterns and create cohorts for research on the health effects of exposure.

Mr. Chair, 3.7 million veterans are eligible to enroll in the VA burn pit registry; yet, after 4 years, only 144,000 veterans have enrolled. That is only a dismal less than 4 percent enrollment rate. It is clear that more outreach and education must be done to improve awareness about the registry.

These additional funds will also improve health outcomes by raising awareness for our veterans and their physicians so they can be on the lookout for subtle changes in their health, including respiratory issues, early signs of cancer, or even autoimmune diseases.

We have a responsibility to protect our men and women in uniform and veterans from the harmful effects of exposure to burn pits. If there is a high enough suspicion of a severe enough consequence, then we need to act now.

The four things we need to do are:

One, stop our troops' exposure to burn pits out on the battlefield;

Two, outreach to doctors and veterans about the illnesses they may face so they can be vigilant and seek and get the appropriate care;

Three, give veterans and servicemembers the treatment that they have earned and deserve; and

Four, simultaneously do the research that is needed to understand the full scope of the dangers associated with exposure to burn pits.

By investing in this educational campaign about the burn pits registry, my amendment will help tackle two of these fronts by improving outreach to veterans and providing the VA with a larger study sample size to help determine the full scope of the negative health effects linked to exposure.

I urge my colleagues, on behalf of Jennifer Kepner, a 39-year-old mother of two who died of pancreatic cancer after being exposed to burn pits, with no other risk factors, in Balad Air Force Base, I urge my colleagues, on behalf of all the others who have died of cancer at a young age and left behind families and those who have acquired pulmonary fibrosis and permanent disabilities who are now requiring oxygen, unable to work, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and to take concrete action to help those veterans who have been exposed to burn pits. The health of our veterans must be put above bureaucracy. We must help them get the answers and the healthcare services that they need and deserve now.

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the chairman and the ranking member and all those who are in support of this specific amendment, who will put our veterans above this bureaucracy and give them the care that they need by expanding their access to this burn pit registry. I want to, from the bottom of my heart, say thank you.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, as the designee of Mr. Carbajal, I have an amendment at the desk.

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment with my good friend from Santa Barbara, California, Congressman Salud Carbajal, to address an issue impacting veterans that prevents them from accessing healthcare services they have earned and deserve.

Right now, veterans calling their community-based outpatient clinics to make an appointment are automatically routed to central, busy call centers at major VA medical centers. This makes no sense.

This means that veterans end up waiting sometimes more than an hour, especially in Carbajal's district, to be connected to a scheduler, and that is if they can get through at all.

Additionally, some community-based outpatient clinics are not following up with veterans after the initial call at the busy hospital calling center, forcing veterans to find transportation to actually travel to the clinic just to make their appointment. As a result, many veterans get fed up and stop pursuing the care that they need out of frustration and lack of accessibility.

Our Nation's veterans deserve timely access to healthcare services. They should be able to make their medical appointments or at least speak to somebody without having to wait an hour on the phone.

This amendment directs the Secretary to ensure the VA phone system allows veterans to directly call their local community-based outpatient centers for appointments at those facilities, rather than having all calls be routed to the major busy VA medical centers.

In short, it would reduce call wait times for veterans in Congressman Carbajal's district, in my district, in your districts, and districts throughout our Nation.

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, wonderful. This is a very easy, commonsense fix to a problem that our veterans face. They wait too long, they get fed up, they are not getting the followup that they need, and all this does is allows them to call the actual place where they need their appointments to schedule an appointment with them.

So I would really like to thank Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz for not opposing this amendment and for their support and for their support of veterans in the underlying bill.

I would also like to recognize and thank Congressman Carbajal and his staff for their work, and his efforts to improve the lives of veterans in his district, in my district, and all of our districts. I also want to thank my staff for their work on this amendment?

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment to help ensure veterans have easy access to healthcare benefits that they have earned and deserve, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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