[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6854-S6857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 RIGHTS FOR AMERICA'S DISABLED VETERANS

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about veterans' 
rights being bartered away. And I hope that my colleagues both here on 
the floor and in the various parts of the Capitol will listen to what I 
have to say, because it may be the last time this can be said.
  These rights for veterans are being bartered away in back room deals; 
they are being done without full Senate consideration; they are being 
done without amendments; they are being done without the public's 
knowledge; they are being done in a way which is, to me, shocking. I am 
referring to the denial of veterans' disability rights that was enacted 
as part of TEA 21 and the process which is now going on with regard to 
the technical corrections bill, which is needed to amend drafting 
errors that were made to TEA 21.
  Mr. President, I have been in the Senate now for 13 years. I have 
been very honored to serve on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. It is 
part of my Senate service that has truly made me proud. I am proud to 
be helping real people with genuine human needs. Coming from a great 
State like West Virginia, which, like the Presiding Officer's State, 
places great honor on military service, and in serving on the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee, both of these things have allowed me the opportunity 
to learn a lot about the sacrifices that millions of our brothers and 
sisters have made to preserve the freedoms that we too often take for 
granted. They have earned our respect in ways that many of us will 
never know, God willing.
  I am proud to serve veterans, and I hope to continue to serve them 
however I can. But I am not so proud of the way this Congress--this 
Senate--is treating disabled veterans this year, and I wish to talk 
about it. I am, in fact, ashamed for all of us in the Senate. It is not 
a pretty story. It makes me very angry, and it makes me very sad. 
America's veterans--indeed, all Americans--are being subjected to an 
unprecedented money grab, a shell game, conducted behind closed doors, 
as part of the highway reauthorization process.
  Mr. President, veterans have earned better treatment than they are 
getting. They have earned more from their Government than a process 
that denies them their rights without any accountability--They have 
earned more than a process that is out of control. I repeat, this is a 
process in which all of the American people are being harmed by what is 
being done to veterans behind closed doors.
  My colleagues all need to know the truth of this. Why is it that we 
are now willing to look the other way when a conference report grossly 
exceeds the scope of the underlying original legislation? As my 
colleagues know, I have been fighting for many months to correct the 
injustice that we do this year

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to veterans. It is my duty, Mr. President; it is my right to do so as a 
single U.S. Senator; and it is my obligation.
  Mr. President, we bestow upon the Republican leader the power to 
control the matters that are brought before this body. If the Democrats 
control, then the Democratic leader does it. If the Republicans 
control, the Republican leader has that authority. It is awesome 
authority. It is an awesome responsibility. But the leader has failed 
veterans this year.
  Why does the Republican leader continue to use his power to deny full 
Senate consideration of H.R. 3978, the highway corrections bill? What 
is he afraid of? Why has the leadership turned a deaf ear to America's 
veterans who have been calling and writing to all of us to petition to 
have this bill brought to the floor? Why is it that the Republican 
leader will not give us the opportunity to offer an amendment to H.R. 
3978 which would restore veterans' disability rights that were cut off 
to pay for unprecedented increases in highway funding?

  Instead of bringing this bill to the floor for debate and for a 
single amendment--30 minutes; that is all I ask for, 30 minutes equally 
divided--the majority leader has simply said that he will find another 
way to pass this bill--quietly, covertly, out of the light of day and 
out of the sight of veterans. It is not a pretty sight. That other way, 
we are now told, will probably be the Internal Revenue Service 
restructuring conference report that is slated to come to the floor 
soon.
  Now, as all of my colleagues know, when a conference report comes, it 
is unamendable. So it is a winning tactic. You want to get something 
passed, you put it into a conference report--and nobody knows about it; 
and nobody even knows where the conference committee is getting its 
directions--you put it in, then you bring it to the floor. Nobody can 
amend it, because it is called a conference report. It is sacred on 
this floor. It is unamendable, evading the usual process that would 
have allowed this issue to be fully aired and debated in the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee, the authorizing committee which has jurisdiction 
over veterans' compensation matters.
  The highway bill conferees this spring took away a benefit that had 
been granted to disabled veterans under existing law--there is no new 
program here, it is under existing law. The conferees took something 
away from disabled American veterans--found disabled because of their 
inservice smoking addiction, having passed through a terrific series of 
tests which eliminate virtually all of them.
  Now, once again sidestepping the regular process, the Internal 
Revenue Service restructuring conferees will fail to restore the 
benefits cut in the highway bill. It will be done at the direction of 
the Republican leader. And I know something whereof I speak, because I 
have talked with some of the conferees. That is why I am here to share 
my sense of outrage with my colleagues.
  This is a critical issue of justice and fairness to people who are 
addicted because of the efforts of the U.S. Government in part, and in 
some cases in full. And every moment that we wait to correct this 
injustice, veterans and their families are irreparably harmed.
  Right now, the Department of Veterans Affairs is holding veterans' 
smoking-related disability claims in abeyance, just holding them until 
this corrections bill is passed. And when I say this ``corrections 
bill,'' I am talking about a corrections bill we will probably never 
see, we will never have a chance to debate; there will be no 30 minutes 
equally divided; there will be no up-or-down vote so Americans will 
know where people in the Senate stand on this matter--because it is 
being done in quiet.
  All of this means that the VA is not deciding any of these claims.
  Some were filed over 5 years ago and those folks have already been 
waiting all of this time for decisions. Their lives are on hold. Some 
claimants will have died. In fact, I suspect a lot of them will have 
died waiting for a decision. Some of their widows will have lost their 
homes since they did not have a VA check to make ends meet because the 
veterans' disability compensation has been cut off in secret. Every day 
that we wait, another veteran or a widow is irreparably harmed. We 
can't go back, but we can help those who are still waiting.
  Let's review the history of what happened here. I understand the 
Senate wishes to do other things. That is of no concern to me at this 
moment. What I am concerned about is these people and their future. In 
a disingenuously conceived fiction, the Clinton administration and the 
Budget Committee this year created some imaginary ``savings.'' It was a 
lovely scheme.
  I had all the OMB people in my office coming to tell me about the 
wonderful things that they were going to do with this money and that it 
would be used to help pay for all the President's projects in his 
budget, but they were doing it at the expense of disabled American 
veterans who, until recently, under current law, had the right to file 
disability claims if they are addicted to nicotine because of the U.S. 
Government. So they create imaginary savings. The Clinton 
administration did this, first, by increasing the budget baseline by an 
artificially inflated, absolutely unrealistic, ridiculous estimate of 
the cost of disability claims of veterans suffering from smoking-
related diseases, and then at the same time by proposing to change 
existing law to bar disabled veterans from receiving this compensation. 
Well done, well done. The paper savings they created were then used to 
fund a huge increase in the highway bill.
  Now, these savings, Mr. President, you have to understand, are not 
real. This is a big shell game. They exist on paper only. They are 
based on an estimate of 500,000 veterans who would file tobacco-related 
claims each year. As I have said, so far a total of 8,000 have applied 
and only 300 claims have been granted. So you can now grasp the 
ridiculousness of the estimates on the part of the Clinton 
administration--but still, they came over and argued this. There were 
calls from the White House, calls from OMB, visits from the White 
House, visits from OMB.
  Experience indicates there is no factual basis for this ridiculous 
estimate. The reality, as I will say again, is that only 8,000 veterans 
have filed such claims over the past 6 years. So you can see these 
numbers are totally pie in the sky, merely a self-interested guess, a 
self-promoting guess by OMB.
  Make no mistake about this, the huge increase in highway spending is, 
in fact, being paid for by make-believe savings, paid for by a devious 
fiction which is really spending of the surplus which we all so 
jealously claim to be protecting. Shame on every one of us, all 100 of 
us. Shame on us for perpetrating the fiction and then for cutting off 
of the current law for disabled American veterans who are disabled due 
to tobacco-related illnesses.
  Although based on fiction, the impact of this number shuffling is 
very hurtful and real. The benefit that has been granted to disabled 
veterans under existing law has been summarily eliminated by a sleight-
of-hand action, without consideration by the authorizing committee--
which has jurisdiction, I might add, over compensation issues--in a 
complete mockery of our budget process and of regular order in the 
Senate.
  We have created new ways of doing things in this body in order to 
avoid this issue. Now this is what I have called a midnight raid on 
veterans' benefits. I have used these and other words in the past and I 
could use stronger words. To put it bluntly, America's veterans have 
been wronged by back-door trickery. Funding for the veterans' benefits 
have been cut; imaginary savings have been diverted to pay for 
highways; and veterans' disability rights have been placed in jeopardy.
  No, it is not too late to correct this. It is not too late to correct 
this injustice done to disabled American veterans. The necessity of 
passing a technical corrections bill to the highway bill provides the 
opportunity to do just that. Those interested in the highway projects 
listed in the corrections bill are very interested in passing this 
bill. So believe me, we are going to pass it. It is probably going to 
come to the floor attached to the IRS Restructuring conference report. 
Or it will come attached to something else. In any case, there will be 
no chance for the disabled veterans, but plenty of chances for more 
Federal dollars for highways.

  The amendment I offer would strike the veterans' disability 
compensation

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offset from the underlying conference report on H.R. 2400. I have 
requested that it be put to an up-or-down vote so that America's 
veterans can see, in the light of day, where their elected 
representatives choose to stand on this issue.
  Now, let me be clear what my amendment would and would not do. First 
and foremost, be assured my amendment strikes no highway project. These 
projects are already in law. My amendment would fully preserve each and 
every highway dollar and project that was included in the highway bill. 
I voted for the highway bill. I support highway funding. I come from 
West Virginia. Only 4 percent of the land is flat. You think that we 
don't need roads? Not a single project in West Virginia or any other 
State will be affected in any way, shape or form by this. Why? Because 
the projects will be funded through the appropriations process.
  Second, my amendment would not trigger a sequester. That is one of 
the contentions of those who would deny disability benefits to 
veterans. It is untrue. My amendment is protected by the same budget 
trickery, to be honest, that covered the TEA 21 bill and that waived 
certain provisions of the Gramm-Rudman Act.
  Third, the amendment I propose does not provide any new benefit to 
any veteran. It merely restores the state of the law prior to the 
enactment of the highway bill. The law was based on interpretation of 
VA's existing obligation to veterans to provide compensation for 
smoking-related illnesses. Veterans who file claims for smoking-related 
illnesses would have to meet the same legal and evidentiary 
requirements as claimants for any other service-connected disability. 
The test to establish these claims is, as I have indicated, very tough. 
I remind you, only 300 have passed so far.
  The veteran must prove that the addiction to use tobacco began in the 
military service, that the addiction continued without interruption, 
and that the addiction resulted in an illness, and that the addiction 
resulted in a disability. He must prove all of that. Eight-thousand 
have tried and 300 have been successful. Easy test? Not quite.

  It is imperative that the correction bill be brought to the floor 
where it can be debated and amended. If TEA 21 is permitted to stand 
uncorrected, an entire category of veterans' disability rights will be 
eliminated. Even claims of veterans who became ill with tobacco-related 
illnesses while on active duty will be cut off. And smokers' claims for 
conditions that may be associated with tobacco use, but are also 
presumptively service connected--please hear this--based on exposure to 
Agent Orange or radiation, may also be cut off. What are we doing here?
  Moreover, in a provision that truly adds insult to injury, the 
conference report makes tobacco use in the military an act of ``willful 
misconduct.'' Do you know what that means, Mr. President? It means that 
veterans are justifiably outraged that smoking could be considered 
``willful misconduct,'' equating smoking with alcohol or substance 
abuse. They feel betrayed by a Government that encouraged smoking 
during their service, and now would turn its back on the health 
problems that resulted.
  If H.R. 3978, the corrections bill, is allowed to go forward as 
drafted, and unamended, veterans and their survivors will forever lose 
their ability to seek compensation for tobacco-related deaths or 
illnesses resulting from nicotine dependence that was incurred in 
service. These veterans will lose their ability to get VA health care. 
Veterans with service-connected conditions receive priority free health 
care. If you add it up, if service connection for compensation purposes 
is barred, using CBO numbers, there will be about 700,000 veterans who 
will very possibly be turned away from access to VA health care.
  The Government's role in fostering veterans' addiction to tobacco 
during their military service is well known and much ``untalked'' about 
in current weeks. Smoking was thought to calm the nerves. I had lunch 
with one of my best friends the other day, and he told me that back in 
World War II he was given free cigarettes in C rations and K rations, 
and discounted cigarettes--cigarettes which didn't have any warning on 
them until 5 years after the FDA required that they be put on civilian 
packs of cigarettes. No; they were encouraged to ``take a smoke break, 
relax, calm yourself. Sure, this is battle and training and it is 
stressful, but this cigarette will help you.'' The voice of the U.S. 
Government was speaking.
  So all of this represents a shameful abuse of the trust of our young 
service members. How can we now turn around and call a behavior 
encouraged by our Government ``willful misconduct''? How do we do that? 
How can we turn our back on these veterans' need for health care? Well, 
we are doing it by ignoring the consequences of the highway bill and by 
ignoring America's veterans.
  There has been a lot of talk about veterans and smoking in the last 
few months. As you know, this Chamber adopted an amendment to direct a 
portion of the proceeds from the tobacco bill--if we can remember that 
far back--to VA health care. That action, of course, is now 
meaningless. Senator McCain was for the amendment and so was I. The 
amendment was for health care, not compensation for the disability of 
veterans made ill by tobacco that was foisted upon them by the U.S. 
Government in service to their country.
  So we have no tobacco bill now. Those of my colleagues who sought 
refuge in the tobacco legislation now are going to have to look for 
some other place for refuge.
  Some may also point to the provisions in the highway bill that 
provide enhancements to some very important VA programs. It was said to 
me early on, ``Senator Rockefeller, you have to understand that we put 
a lot of things in this technical corrections bill that are for 
veterans. You can't be against these, because that will cut those 
things out.'' And so they put in some enhancements to the GI bill, 
grants for adaptive automobile equipment, and a few other programs.
  I am sorry, but veterans are not to be bought off. Veterans are 
unanimous in their view of this. This is $1.6 billion in benefits that 
veterans could have. But the price is the abolition of the right for 
disabled veterans to seek compensation for tobacco-related illnesses--I 
am sorry, Mr. President, that price is too dear. Our friends in the 
veterans community speak with one voice on this issue, and I agree, 
they cannot support the increase in benefits to one set of veterans, to 
be paid by the cutting of essential benefits to another class of 
veterans who already have those benefits under law. Veterans across 
this Nation reject this attempt to buy them off.
  So I repeat--and I am not ordinarily this partisan, and I hope that 
the Presiding Officer understands that--what is the majority leader 
scared of on this? Why can't we have a vote on this? This is a basic, 
moral issue--to determine the way that the U.S. Government chooses to 
present itself to the American people. There is a fundamental, moral 
principle involved--undoing current law, under a budget fiction, 
started by the Clinton administration, and joined in by the majority. 
So the result of all of that power is that veterans are shut out, 
dumped, and then cut out of the law from this point forward. Why does 
the Leader not bring this bill to the floor so it can be debated and 
amended? Why does he have to move this in the dark of night? Once 
again, I urge the majority leader to bring this corrections bill to the 
floor.
  I participated in a conversation at the back of this Chamber with one 
of the conferees on the IRS bill, describing how, oh, yes, it was 
probable that this technical corrections bill would be put into the IRS 
conference report. That sounds positive, doesn't it? No, it is highly 
negative. That means that when it comes to the floor, it cannot be 
amended or debated. It can only be voted up or down, and the veterans 
lose on all fronts from that action.
  My colleagues need to understand that there is a huge problem with 
the majority leader's tactic. American veterans will not be fooled by 
what he and others do here. American veterans are not stupid, and they 
are angry. They will see through this charade, but most of the Members 
of the Senate do not see through this charade--the charade of how the 
funding process began and how the highway money comes out of the 
surplus and the phony savings. I bet there wouldn't be 12 Senators on 
this floor, who would understand exactly what happened, how absurd the

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whole thing is, how embarrassing the whole thing is, and how wrong it 
is for veterans to not even be given a chance.
  America's veterans are justifiably losing their faith in Government. 
This will accelerate that process for American veterans. They no longer 
believe that the Government that they fought to preserve intends to 
meet its obligation to them. I share their fear.
  What is obscene about all of this is that this denial of disabled 
veterans' benefits occurred just before Memorial Day, when everybody on 
this floor and in the other body was pouring out words of patriotism, 
appreciation, love, respect, reverence to veterans for all they have 
done for their country. But in the Halls of Congress, actions often 
belie these words. If we do not take care of America's veterans now, 
one might say, who will take care of us in the future? To secure the 
soldiers we will need in the future, we must maintain the promises made 
to those who protected us in the past.

  Thirty minutes equally divided up or down, Mr. President, I submit is 
a fair request on behalf of disabled American veterans.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Utah is recognized to speak for up to 20 minutes as in morning 
business.
  The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. I thank my colleagues.
  Mr. President, it is my understanding that the Senator from Utah has 
20 minutes and the Senator from California has 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. He will be followed by 
the Senator from California, who has 20 minutes.
  Mr. BREAUX. If the Senator will yield, may I have a few minutes from 
either Senator?
  Mr. HATCH. We will be happy to do so.

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