[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6491-S6492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Agent Orange

  Madam President, finally, about our veterans and Agent Orange, 
yesterday, our Nation observed Veterans Day. It was a chance for all of 
us to say thank you to the millions of brave Americans who have served 
our country. It was a day not only to celebrate their achievements and 
express a deep and abiding gratitude for their service but also to 
recognize that for many veterans, sacrifices have come as a result of 
military service and that those sacrifices are not yet over. I want to 
shed light on one particular issue today.
  There are now hundreds of thousands of veterans who suffer from 
diseases that have been linked to Agent Orange, which is a chemical 
that was used by our military during the Vietnam war. One's exposure to 
Agent Orange can lead to a host of complications--diabetes, leukemia, 
and more. The VA has

[[Page S6492]]

long provided benefits to veterans who suffer from these conditions. It 
has provided healthcare and compensation so as to help to defer the 
hardships veterans have faced from the wounds from which they still 
suffer after having been on the battlefield.
  In response to more recent studies, in 2017, VA Secretary Shulkin 
decided to add bladder cancer, hypertension, Parkinson's-like symptoms, 
and hypothyroidism to the list of Agent Orange-related conditions that 
are eligible for benefits, which would have improved the lives of 
83,000 vets. Shockingly, once again, within this cruel administration--
it doesn't even care about our veterans--it was reported that OMB 
Director and White House Chief of Staff Mulvaney has decided to block 
benefits for these new conditions because he is worried about the cost. 
It is disgraceful.
  Let me repeat.
  Despite the recommendation of President Trump's VA Secretary and the 
recommendation of the National Academy of Medicine, Mulvaney has 
decided to block health benefits to sick veterans. Many of these 
veterans are retired, and many don't have a steady income. These 
benefits could make the difference between life and death, but Mick 
Mulvaney--the same Mick Mulvaney who thought $1.5 trillion was an 
acceptable cost to give billionaires and corporations in a giant tax 
cut, which created a huge deficit--now believes that the cost of 
helping 83,000 sick veterans is just too high.
  This is incomprehensibly cruel. When are the American people going to 
wake up and see what the Trump administration is doing? He gives tax 
breaks to billionaires but no benefits to veterans who are suffering 
from the result of Agent Orange exposure?
  My home State of New York has 240,000 veterans from the Vietnam era. 
Many of them were exposed to Agent Orange without realizing it. Just 
yesterday, the Buffalo News profiled the life of Vietnam veteran Dick 
Gabel, who was drafted into the Army at age 19. In his approximately 2 
years of service, he was shot in the leg. He recovered and was sent 
back to the war. He lost many of his closest friends along the way. 
After he came home, for decades, Dick worked with kids in his hometown 
to make Veterans Day an annual highlight, and he brought together 
hundreds of veterans to volunteer at local schools. Just last year, he 
was diagnosed with leukemia, possibly because of his exposure to Agent 
Orange.
  There are likely thousands of veterans in New York who are like 
Dick--fighting illnesses that are directly linked to Agent Orange and 
their military service in Vietnam. Yet, because they got the wrong 
disease, the Trump administration is blocking their health benefits.
  So today--a day after millions of Americans, myself included, marched 
in the parades across our country to honor our vets--I demand that 
Chief of Staff Mulvaney reverse this cruel and unfair decision 
immediately.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.