[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 89 (Monday, June 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6860-S6861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AGENT ORANGE ACT OF 1991

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I would like to call attention to the 
introduction of S. 1091, our bipartisan legislation to update and 
expand the Agent Orange Act of 1991.
  These changes, and my other ongoing Agent Orange work, are 
necessitated by our imperfect understanding of how dioxin affects the 
human body.
  As many of my colleagues know, dioxin is the toxic ingredient in 
Agent Orange, 11 million gallons of which were sprayed over Vietnam 
during the war. Dioxin ranks with plutonium as one of the most toxic 
substances known to man, and this country dropped more on Vietnam than 
has ever been released into the environment, anywhere in the world. S. 
1091 is another effort, more than 25 years after the war's end, to deal 
with the wounds of, and determine the extent of the injury to, our own 
soldiers.
  As an example of how our knowledge of dioxin is evolving, I would 
point to a provision in S. 1091 that would remove all deadlines for 
veterans to claim disability benefits for respiratory cancer. This 
provision stems from a recent report by the National Academy of 
Sciences, which pointed out that there is no scientific basis for the 
deadline contained in current law--a deadline that effectively blocks 
benefits for a veteran whose cancer develops 30 years after Agent 
Orange exposure. The Academy finds no evidence that the risk diminishes 
with the passage of time.
  And as scientists learn more about Agent Orange, we must continue to 
ensure that veterans benefits are updated accordingly. The current 
mechanism

[[Page S6861]]

for continuous updating, established in the 1991 Agent Orange Act, has 
proven to work well, but it expires soon. The two-step process begins 
with a biennial review of new dioxin research, via a scientific panel 
organized by the National Academy of Sciences. Next, the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs must respond to the report and recommend the addition 
of new diseases and conditions as appropriate. S. 1091 would extend the 
process until 2012.
  Recently, this process has brought diabetes on the Agent Orange 
presumptive disability list, which means that if a veteran was exposed 
to Agent Orange, the veteran's diabetes is presumed to be connected to 
his or her military service. Previous Academy reports have linked Agent 
Orange exposure to serious conditions such as prostate cancer, 
respiratory cancer, the disfiguring skin disease chloracne, soft-tissue 
sarcoma, the lymphatic system cancers known as Hodgkin's disease and 
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, multiple myeloma, and 
subacute peripheral neuropathy.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor of S. 1091, along with the chair and 
ranking member of our Veterans' Affairs Committee. My thanks to 
Senators Rockefeller and Specter for their hard work on this measure 
and their interest in Vietnam veterans, their families, and others who 
live with the diseases, conditions, and uncertainty created by exposure 
to dioxin.

                          ____________________