[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 68 (Friday, May 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ENCOURAGING COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION INTO THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF 
                         AGENT ORANGE EXPOSURE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRIAN HIGGINS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2006

  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 
4259. This important legislation would create the Veterans' Right to 
Know Commission, an investigative body comprised of distinguished 
veterans of the United States Armed Forces and honorable citizens of 
our great Nation. The Commission would be delegated the task of 
comprehensively investigating the usage of chemical and biological 
agents employed by the U.S. military during wartime and their effect on 
the men and women of our Armed Services. I am a co-sponsor of this bill 
because I believe we require comprehensive knowledge regarding the 
health effects of various chemical and biological agents carried out 
under Project 112/SHAD, so that we can more fully understand what 
exposure to them means for our veterans.
  The consequences of exposure to chemical and biological agents like 
Vx nerve gas, Sarin Nerve Gas and E. coli have long been debated by 
those in the scientific community. We already know that long-term 
exposure to Agent Orange, an herbicide used for 10 years during the 
Vietnam War to defoliate and destroy crops, increases the risk of 
cancer, and the Air Force and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs 
now officially recognize that exposure to this chemical plays a role in 
the formation of diabetes. However, some 50 years following initial 
exposure, the specific health effects other chemical and biological 
agents have on the human body are not fully understood. It is 
imperative to determine whether exposure to those agents, tested on 
unknowing military personnel by the Department of Defense between 1962 
and 1974, correlate with life threatening diseases. The American people 
deserve answers and this Commission will help provide those answers.
  Thousands of brave veterans of foreign wars reside in my district, 
individuals who have put their very existence on the line to defend 
every right, ideal and freedom that this noble country exemplifies. We 
owe the passage of this legislation to these men and women and to all 
those who have been exposed to Agent Orange and to other destructive 
chemicals. Just last year, Western New York native and veteran Nelson 
C. Hughes passed away from cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange 
in Vietnam. He was one of the Nation's leading advocates of Vietnam 
veterans suffering from Agent Orange exposure. I am troubled that in 
this time of prolific medical advances we are still unable to 
understand how some chemicals used by our own government affect the 
human body. Mr. Speaker, I call on Congress to honor Mr. Hughes and all 
U.S. veterans by passing this bill. We have a duty to make every 
conceivable effort in the fight to understand and to treat their 
ailments, many of which may be directly or indirectly related to 
chemical exposure our government facilitated.

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