Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 299

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank my colleague and friend Senator Isakson, as well as the ranking member, Senator Tester, for their leadership on the Veterans' Affairs Committee in this past session. I have been proud and honored to work with them, and I look forward to doing so in the next Congress on issues so important and challenging. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of our veterans.

299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I greatly respect my colleague from Utah, and I thank our friend from Georgia for his positive remarks on this topic, but more than words are necessary; we need action. We need dollars and cents to brave Americans who undertook to serve this country, who risked their lives, and who have suffered for years and years from the severe health effects of their contact with Agent Orange and other toxins on the battlefield. They deserve the same benefits as their comrades who served on land. They served in the territorial waters. Year after year they have been denied simple justice--action that fulfills our obligation to them. I greatly respect the words, the rhetoric, the pledges, but asking them to wait denies them justice.

There is an adage we quote frequently: Justice delayed is justice denied. That maxim has particular force here because these veterans, very simply, are passing away. They will be denied the benefits they are owed by this Nation. They will be deprived of the just compensation for injuries they received, like their fellow veterans who served boots on the ground on land, if they are not compensated for the injuries they received when they served in those territorial waters off Vietnam.

This measure has been brought to the floor before. Last week, I joined my colleagues Senators Tester, Gillibrand, Daines, and Brown to demand that simple justice for blue water Navy veterans. Today I am joined by Senator Baldwin of Wisconsin, my very distinguished colleague and friend, to whom I will yield shortly.

Our calls to unanimously pass H.R. 299 were blocked, and that is why we are back here again. In these closing hours of this session, we have the opportunity and obligation to do right by those veterans and to follow our words by our actions. Today the Senate has another chance, even in these last hours, to right a wrong.

Currently, the VA gives the benefit of the doubt to some veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances but not to others. Despite the fact that defoliants were indiscriminately used, only some of those veterans who were affected by them--those veterans suffering from cancer and skin disease and other aftereffects--are eligible for healthcare and benefits to address the health effects of their exposure.

Others, like Gerry Wright of Connecticut, are forced to shoulder the burden of proving they are suffering from this toxic exposure.

I ask my colleagues to reconsider their opposition. I ask them to think about the veterans of their own States who suffer from these kinds of diseases. I ask them to consider men and women like Eugene Clarke of Redding, CT. Because of his experience in Vietnam, he has spent most of his years fighting on behalf of veterans who served there and veterans who served in Korea in the 1960s. He has been a champion. His advocacy, backed by strong support from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, shine a light on these problems.

Today only veterans who were served on the Korean DMZ, from April 1968 through August 1971, are eligible for presumption, despite the fact that from 1966 through 1969, about 55,000 servicemembers were sent to Korea each year.

Mr. Clarke was instrumental in providing evidence that defoliants were sprayed during testing prior to 1968. His efforts have inspired me and my colleagues to introduce the Fairness for Korean DMZ Veterans Act. He is a veteran of that experience. He has fought for the Korean veterans, but he has also added his weight in support of the Vietnam veterans who served after he did.

Two years ago, I pledged to Mr. Clarke that I would fight as long and as hard as possible to make sure veterans who served in the Korean DMZ receive compensation and healthcare if they suffer from agent orange- linked illnesses. I am here today because of him, because of Korean War veterans, and because of Korean veterans who served in the DMZ.

I ask my colleagues to reconsider their opposition. In the limited number of days left in the 115th Congress, we have this important opportunity. We have this tremendous opportunity for anybody who cares about not only the veterans of Vietnam but also their descendants by extending healthcare, vocational training and rehabilitation, as well as providing a monetary allowance to children suffering from the aftereffects through their parents.

I ask my colleagues to do the right thing.

I yield to my colleague from Wisconsin.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, in closing, I am grateful to my colleague from Wisconsin and my colleagues across the aisle. This measure was bipartisan. It was passed unanimously in the House of Representatives. It should be unanimous here. The money is not a problem. The money is there. The predictions about outlandish possible financial exposure are simply products of fantasy. I know my Republican colleagues almost unanimously on the other side of the aisle understand that simple fact. But even if the costs were higher than they are projected to be, we have an obligation to do the right thing. We have a moral duty to make sure we fulfill our promise.

I know the Presiding Officer has been a strong advocate for our veterans. I know my fellow members on the Veterans' Affairs Committee join me in this belief.

The costs of this program are the costs of war. They are the costs of keeping our troops on the DMZ in Korea. They are the costs of having sent them to Vietnam. They are the costs of sending our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and this measure would provide a study of the possible effects in terms of their health from those kinds of poisonous and toxic exposures. The modern battlefield is filled with toxins and poisons, and the injuries that result from them are the costs of war. We need to recognize that fact and refuse, absolutely reject the possibility that we will continue to delay even longer the justice these men and women deserve.

I can pledge to my colleagues that if we fail to do it this session, we will be back again next session. The costs to our conscience, if not to our budget, will rise in the meantime.

I am pleased to call on my very distinguished colleague and military veteran from Illinois, Senator Duckworth.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I wish to close by thanking my colleagues, Senator Duckworth and Senator Baldwin, and say that I would like to end this session on a positive note. I am going to be proud to yield to one of my very good friends and one of our most distinguished colleagues, Senator Shelby from Alabama, who has done such important work on appropriations and our budget. I thank him for it.

I hope that in the next session, this great body will see it in its heart, as well as mind and conscience, to do the right thing--not sometime in the next 2 years but in the first days and weeks so that these veterans have simple justice. I will champion it. I know colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join us, and we can get it done. We must.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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