[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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