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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I want to talk just a few minutes about the circumstances we now find ourselves in, in passing what I consider to be one of the most important pieces of legislation--perhaps the most important piece of legislation that is currently pending certainly before the U.S. Senate--and that is what we have been referring to as the PACT Act.

It is legislation that we have talked about many times on the Senate floor. It is a piece of legislation that I and Senator Tester introduced. It is a piece of legislation that follows a long line of bills coming from the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee with broad bipartisan support that have consequential outcomes for the veterans of our Nation.

We started years ago, several years ago, in regard to the MISSION Act. We followed that with the John Scott Hannon Act.

The MISSION Act provided additional opportunities for veterans to access care in settings across the country to bring medical care to veterans closer to home to make it more available.

And we followed that with the John Hannon Act, which dealt with mental health and trying to reduce and eliminate the use of suicide in veterans' lives.

And then, finally, we have this major piece of legislation that has been a long time coming--way too long--in meeting the needs of those veterans who served, now, a long time ago in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia and our veterans who more recently served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the subject of toxic exposure, where veterans come into contact with something that maybe not at the time created any healthcare concerns for them but over time has become a significant medical and healthcare challenge for those who served in those areas, in Iraq and Afghanistan, their location in relation to the location of a burn pit-- where many things were burned and caused toxic exposure for those veterans in the vicinity--and going back to Vietnam, Agent Orange, which has been so devastating to so many people.

Veterans have waited for a long time. The process to date has been so slow. The legislative efforts, while they have occurred, were never sufficient to meet the needs of those who served our Nation.

And the actions at the Department of Veterans Affairs have delayed decisions for veterans that would make certain that those who encountered these traumatic and damaging healthcare consequences of their service to our Nation receive the medical care that they deserve and the benefits, the financial benefits, that come from being disabled as a result of military service.

I want to reiterate my support for that piece of legislation. The PACT Act needs to--as it came out of our committee by a unanimous vote. It passed the Senate previously with 84 votes. And we need to continue the practice of taking care of our Nation's veterans in a way that is not partisan on either side of the issues.

I often tell my constituents, with some level of pride, that I serve on a committee, and, unfortunately, one of the few remaining committees in which it is difficult sometimes to tell whether there is a Republican chairman or a Democratic chairman. I have been a ranking member and the ranking member of that committee and I have been the chairman of that committee. The Senator from Montana and I have worked hard. And in many ways, because of our veterans, it is a natural occurrence that we find common ground, and our committee members have done the same.

We are now at the point in which we need to make certain that the PACT Act be considered, that cloture be invoked, the difficulties we have had with whether there needs to be an amendment or amendments need to be resolved, and this issue needs to pass the U.S. Senate in short order.

Our veterans need to be reassured. I would do this to the best of my ability to reassure veterans that, for whatever is in my capabilities, I am going to be the advocate, the spokesperson, the one who is trying to make--along with my colleagues. I am not trying to single myself out as the only one who cares about this issue. But for what I can do, I am going to do it to make sure that we have success in this legislation. Success, to me, is passage by the Senate, passage by the House, and signed by the President, and a law that then can be implemented by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I have said many times that there are lots of challenges still to come. No piece of legislation that we pass is easily implemented by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and we will have our work to do. But at the moment, the work before us, the work that needs to be accomplished today, now, this week, is the passage of the PACT Act so that our veterans who are encountering significant medical challenges have the care and benefits that come from being a veteran.

I am one of those who agree with the thought, the belief, that if you serve in our military, we owe you to live up to the promises we made. I am of the belief that the costs of war--they certainly come with the service. We then have an obligation not only to fund the military activities but to fund the programs and benefits that are necessary to care for those who serve who, as a result of their service, are damaged mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally.

Again, I ask the leaders of the U.S. Senate and my colleagues here to--let's get this resolved, let's get it resolved quickly, and let's make certain that our veterans, as we want to serve them, are served in the way they should be.

I just would only add that time is of the essence. This bill has been pending before the Senate for a while and, before that, in the U.S. House of Representatives. But it has been a conversation by our veterans service organizations, their members; it has been a conversation by veterans organizations across the country now for decades: Solve this problem.

We are on the cusp of doing so, and we should not let this moment pass. There are veterans who are dying every day. There are veterans who have died since this legislation was introduced. I would like to make certain that there is no veteran, even if he or she is nearing that time of the end of their life, worried about whether their children or their spouse is going to receive the care and treatment and the benefits that they earned by their service.

So, Mr. President, please, my colleagues of the U.S. Senate, please, let's make certain we do our work to honor their service.

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