Vietnam Veterans Liver Fluke Cancer Study Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaLOTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, a weekend or two ago in Suffolk County, I stood with nearly 1,000 Long Islanders at a Vietnam war Veterans Day ceremony. The theme of the day was simple but powerful: Welcome home.

Welcome home after serving in a war that was unpopular at home.

Welcome home after surviving brutal jungle and guerrilla warfare.

Welcome home after losing more than 58,000 brothers and sisters in arms.

Welcome home to a nation and a healthcare system that wasn't ready to care for your wounds, seen and unseen.

Today, Vietnam veterans across my district and across the country are still fighting. This time, the enemy isn't on a battlefield overseas. It is a silent killer, bile duct cancer, caused by a parasite known as the liver fluke.

Multiple studies have confirmed what these veterans have suspected for decades. Those who served in Vietnam face a much higher risk of contracting, suffering from, and dying from this disease.

Here is the most disappointing part, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to hide behind a familiar excuse: We don't have enough data.

Let me tell you what we do have. In 2018, the Northport VA Medical Center on Long Island, right in the heart of my district, conducted the first of its kind study on this issue. From a small sample of 50 Vietnam veterans, 24 percent tested positive for exposure to the liver fluke parasite.

That study raised the alarm and called for further research, standardized treatment, and expanded access to care for affected veterans at VA facilities across the country.

Instead of urgent action, we got bureaucratic delay. It wasn't until 2024, 6 years later, that a second followup study was finally completed. What did it find? Exactly what our veterans had been saying all along. Marines who served in Vietnam were 30 percent more likely to die from this disease than those who served elsewhere.

Still, the VA refuses to acknowledge this as a service-connected condition. Mr. Speaker, that is unacceptable.

We have seen this pattern before with Agent Orange, the blue water Navy, and now, again, with liver fluke: Delay, denial, deflection.

In response, I introduced H.R. 4424, the Vietnam Veterans Liver Fluke Cancer Study Act, a bipartisan bill requiring the VA, in partnership with the CDC, to conduct a nationwide study and finally confront the truth: Bile duct cancer caused by the liver fluke parasite is a service-related illness.

Since the VA won't act, Congress must because our Vietnam veterans deserve more than parades and speeches. They deserve answers, care, and our action.

Mr. Speaker, every day we wait, more veterans die without the care they deserve. Let's not repeat the failures of the past.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Bost for his support of this legislation. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in standing with those who once stood for us. They answered the call. Now, it is our turn.

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