Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the ``Clean Water For Military Families Act.'' This legislation would provide $10 billion for the Department of Defense to conduct investigations and remediate PFAS contamination at and surrounding DOD installations in the U.S. and state-owned National Guard facilities.

Dating back to the 1960s, the U.S. Navy began using a firefighting foam called aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) that contains toxic PFAS chemicals. The military used AFFF firefighting foam for emergencies, fire training exercises, and equipment testing, resulting in large discharges of PFAS contamination in groundwater and other environments.

For decades, DOD continued using AFFF firefighting foam despite mounting evidence of detrimental health concerns, and even after leading manufacturers voluntarily phased out production of PFOS and PFOA, the two most widespread and studied PFAS compounds.

In recent years, Congress has passed legislation requiring DOD to phase out the use of AFFF firefighting foams. While this is a vital step toward ensuring DOD adopts PFAS-free alternatives going forward, it does not address DOD's legacy pollution.

To clean up the legacy pollution at contaminated military sites across the country, this legislation authorizes a one-time, $10 billion investment for PFAS investigations and cleanup. We owe it to military communities to ensure that they can drink clean water and live pollution-free.

There are hundreds of contaminated military sites across the country that jeopardize the health, safety, and well-being of military communities who have suffered from exposure to PFAS pollution and toxic drinking water.

In California alone, there are 62 military facilities with a known or suspected PFAS release.

Since the discovery of PFAS at these installations, there has been little to no progress on the bases with the highest PFAS detections. A $10 billion investment would accelerate DOD's existing cleanup efforts and cover all types of PFAS chemicals. Absent this legislation, it could take decades for DOD to clean up toxic PFAS. We must act now to move beyond studying the problem and toward a comprehensive cleanup effort to protect service-members, veterans, and military communities.

I thank my co-lead, Senator Gillibrand for her tireless leadership fighting PFAS contamination at DOD sites. I also thank the bill's cosponsors for championing this effort with me in the Senate.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the ``Clean Water for Military Families Act'' as quickly as possible.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source