Toxic Military Burn Pits

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to tell the story of my constituent, Jennifer Kepner and to call for immediate action on the most pressing public health issue facing our veterans: toxic military burn pits.

Four years ago, I met a veteran named Jennifer Kepner at her home in Cathedral City, California, in my district. Jennifer, a 39-year-old mother of two, was one of the most inspiring and brave people I have ever met, and that kitchen table conversation was one of the most impactful conversations in my life.

When I met her, she was cachectic. You could see her bones. She was wasting away. She was battling pancreatic cancer and was on chemotherapy. You could see the port in her chest and you could see the loss of hair. And she was still so very full of energy inside to tell her story and sound the alarm.

Her doctor linked her exposure to burn pits during her service overseas. You see, she was described as a health nut, as someone thin, healthy, who liked to run, and jog. Her friends would say: She was one of those crazy people who would wake up at 4 in the morning and go on a 5-mile run routinely.

So when she came down with pancreatic cancer at such a young age, her physicians looked at her DNA, her family history, and they concluded that the most likely cause, given her low risk, was her exposure to toxic military burn pit smoke.

I sat with her in her home as she told me her story. She told me about her military service as an Air Force medic caring for our men and women in uniform who were injured or sick. You see, she was stationed at Balad Air Base in Iraq. She told me about her husband and their two children, Adia and Wyatt, who she loved so very dearly.

She told me about burn pits, these huge fields where the military burns trash--anything and everything--including batteries, jet fuel, medical waste, plastics, and other hazardous material causing servicemembers to inhale toxic chemicals, carcinogens, and particulate matter.

They call it the crud, you see, because after a long day in the desert serving our country, they go to their camp wanting a little rest, and they smell this black toxic chemical smoke and they get the soot on their face, in their nostrils, in their throat. They have itchy eyes, a runny nose, a sore throat. They cough, and that is just another day at a base serving our country.

Jennifer spent her last month as a leading voice for her fellow veterans exposed to burn pits which she called ``the Agent Orange of our generation.''

Wow. ``The Agent Orange of our generation.'' We all are infuriated with the way that our Vietnam veterans were denied and their care was delayed and their recognition had been postponed when they were saying, ``We are sick.'' Their children are born malformed. They are infertile. They have other issues and syndromes and symptoms that are life- threatening and debilitating.

She is saying that this is the Agent Orange of our generation, and she knew that she was going to die. She knew that her days were limited. She knew that pancreatic cancer is the most aggressive cancer that causes death within months after diagnosis.

She didn't give up. She didn't give up, despite the VA denying her the recognition that it was the burn pits that caused her pancreatic cancer. She didn't give up. Despite the VA denying her the benefits that she needed for her family, she didn't give up. Her dying wish was to ensure two things: one, was that other veterans didn't have to struggle through a system that denied and delayed and did not recognize her illness so that she said: Let's help other veterans.

The second was: Please help my husband, Ben, get the benefits to care for my children. In her last dying days she was thinking of others with that heart of a servant and the fierce determination of a warrior.

I remember getting the call when I was in my district office that she was dying, and she would potentially die within a few hours.

I fell to my knees and I cried. I composed myself and I thought, as a physician, there are only certain things that I can do in the art and science of medicine, but I know that there is a greater healer; that there is a greater power, and perhaps this is what I can bring to serve the family at this moment. So I invited my pastor, Gerald Sharon, to come with me so that we could pray with her on her deathbed.

There she was, taking her last breaths. Her mother was there crying. Her husband was trying to keep it together. Her children were at her side. The youngest one was too young to understand what was happening. The older one, the daughter, was a little more aware, but she was trying to keep it together.

We did our prayer, and she died on October 18, 2017. Since then, it has been my mission to make her vision a reality.

Her story drove me to found the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Burn Pits Caucus with my friend and colleague Congressman Brad Wenstrup from Ohio.

Her story inspired me to work with brilliant minds across the aisle like my friend who is sitting here, Representative Gus Bilirakis, to introduce legislation in a bipartisan manner.

And her strength inspired me to coauthor my bipartisan, bicameral legislation, the Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act, to get veterans the benefits and care they have earned and need and deserve.

Her vision is reflected in the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or the Honoring Our PACT Act, which includes my legislation to keep our Nation's promise to our veterans to take care of them after they serve our Nation.

Her stories and the countless stories of other veterans that you will hear today by Republicans and Democrats are speaking to us beyond the grave to act now with urgency for their fellow veterans and for their families. Under the leadership of our great chairman of the VA Committee, Chair Mark Takano, we will get this done.

We cannot sit by while the veterans Jennifer served with are denied the healthcare and benefits they have earned and deserve. No one who has served and sacrificed for our Nation should have to face the trials that she endured to get the medical care that she needed, or their widows the benefits to support their families with a life of dignity.

In 1 week, we will celebrate Veterans Day and show our appreciation for all of those who served our Nation in our Armed Forces. Some will wear red, white, and blue attire. Some will even go as far as to make public displays of hugging a flag, and some will always say the same old thing: Thank you to our veterans. Thank you to our veterans for your service.

I have said consistently that our veterans appreciate the thanks but they really need pragmatic support.

On Memorial Day, the way we memorialize and honor the dead is by serving the living and improving their lives.

They might have survived the battlefield, but they are dying from their exposures of a self-inflicted Department of Defense wound to our men and women in uniform by using these burn pits that, by the way, are illegal and banned in the United States precisely for their public health hazards.

We need pragmatic support, not lip service or empty gestures in our appreciation and celebration on Veterans Day. We must act now and get our veterans the healthcare and benefits they have earned when we sent them to war for our country.

Servicemembers are returning home from the battlefield right now only to become delayed casualties of war, dying years later from constrictive bronchiolitis, pulmonary fibrosis, brain cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancers, and autoimmune diseases caused by their exposure to the toxic, hundreds of chemicals from burned plastics, jet fuels, and hazardous materials that they inhaled while serving our Nation.

The DOD and the VA cannot continue to neglect this self-inflicted wound on our veterans. So in Jennifer's name and the countless names of the veterans who have suffered and some succumbed to their illnesses due to their exposures to burn pits, we all will continue fighting tooth and nail to protect our servicemembers and our veterans from toxic burn pits.

She would never turn her back on a fellow veteran, and as a nation, neither can we.

I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), my friend, my neighbor, and the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, a true champion for our veterans and the sponsor of Honoring our PACT Act.
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Mr. RUIZ. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), my friend and colleague, a member of the Congressional Burn Pits Caucus, and a fierce advocate for our veterans.

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Mr. RUIZ. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), who I am proud to have join me as a cosponsor of the Honoring our PACT Act and a member of the bipartisan Congressional Burn Pits Caucus.

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Mr. RUIZ. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), the co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Burn Pits Caucus.

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Mr. RUIZ. Madam Speaker, how much time do I have remaining? Do I have 1 minute remaining?

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