[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6539-S6540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Unanimous Consent Request--S.R. 420

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, earlier this week, we celebrated Veterans 
Day, a day we honor the sacrifice and the service of those who fought 
in Normandy and Pearl Harbor and Inchon, at Khe Sanh, Somalia, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Kandahar, Mosul, and everywhere else where veterans work 
to protect our country. We owe them and their families a debt that we 
often fall short in repaying. That is what this is about today.
  For years, the VA has been presented with scientific information from 
the National Academy of Sciences making it clear that the list of the 
conditions stemming from Agent Orange exposure is extensive. It 
includes hyperthyroidism, bladder cancer, Parkinson's-like symptoms, 
and hypertension. In the late iteration of the Veterans and Agent 
Orange Exposure Update 11, published a year ago, the National Academies 
recognized that those illnesses--hypothyroidism, bladder cancer, 
Parkinson's-like symptoms, and hypertension--all have suggestive or 
sufficient evidence associated with Agent Orange.
  Historically, the VA added illnesses in those two categories to the 
list of presumptive medical conditions associated with Agent Orange 
exposure. On a bipartisan basis, this Congress has done the right thing 
time after time. We are all on the same side when it comes to helping 
veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
  We recently found out that former VA Secretary Shulkin decided to add 
three of these conditions to the list of presumptive medical conditions 
associated with that exposure only to have OMB--the Trump 
administration--block his decision. In an email to Director Mulvaney, 
Secretary Shulkin said adding these conditions was ``imperative.'' Yet 
no action took place. There are 83,000 veterans living with at least 1 
of the presumptive medical conditions--83,000. They are in Tennessee. 
They are in Georgia. They are in South Dakota. They are in Ohio. In a 
discussion with blue water Navy veterans last week, I learned that 
since the Department put a stay on adjudicating their Agent Orange 
claims earlier this year, 12 veterans have died. Time is running out. 
Some might accuse this body of waiting until they all die. As hard as 
it is to say that and hear that, we are waiting until they all die 
before we move.
  For whatever political reason the administration seems to place on 
this, we need to ensure that veterans receive the healthcare and the 
compensation they earned. They shouldn't have to fight these one at a 
time when there are sick men and women veterans of Vietnam. We did this 
to them. The American Government decided to spray Agent Orange. We knew 
it was harmful. We know it is harmful. We knew it then, and we know it 
now. The chemical companies knew and the government knew. Why does the 
administration now think it is OK to abandon our commitment to these 
veterans? If you are exposed to poison while serving our country, there 
should be no question that you deserve the benefits you earned. Period. 
No exception.
  Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 420, 
encouraging the President to expand the list of the Department of 
Veterans Affairs of presumptive medical conditions associated with 
exposure to Agent Orange to include parkinsonism, bladder cancer, 
hypertension, hypothyroidism, which was submitted earlier today; I 
further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed 
to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. ISAKSON. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Reserving the right to object, I want to say to my 
committee member how much I appreciate his dedicated work. In the 
committee, we work on a lot of things, including the diseases in here, 
getting presumptive conclusions done so we can cover as much as 
possible, but medicine is not exact. Diseases are not exact. 
Circumstances are not exact. When you make a decision to include a 
benefit for our veterans, you are making a commitment to spend that 
money from the taxpayers of the United States of America.
  In the committee--and the Senator is part of it, and he knows this 
because I helped him a lot--we just approved blue water Navy funds, 
which is going to be one of the largest increases in the history of 
benefits going to our veterans. We are circumventing into that some of 
the due diligence--which you really ought to do before you make a 
presumption of the diseases caused in all cases.
  I am an alumni of the Georgia Air National Guard and a veteran. I am 
chairman of the committee. I think the world of the Senator from Ohio. 
What he is trying to do is great and right, just as he wanted to lead 
us to help get us where we got to on the blue water Navy funds, but I 
object to this motion as one who would benefit because I have 
Parkinson's. I went into service during the 1960s, during a year that 
would be considered the Vietnam era. I didn't serve in Vietnam, but I 
served in that era, so I would have consideration if I got Parkinson's 
disease--which I have Parkinson's. Then they can use that as a 
conclusion to find out if it

[[Page S6540]]

was presumptively caused or not by the exposure I had.
  I am just telling you as one who, if I wanted to, could take a 
benefit from this end run. I am not going to do it because I think it 
is time, as chairman of the committee--that it is time we make sure 
that every benefit we promise veterans, that we have the money to do it 
so we don't spend too much money on other benefits and leave ourselves 
short for theirs.
  I object to the motion.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Senator Isakson knows this is no sort of false kind of 
flattery. He knows how much I think of him. He runs the most bipartisan 
committee in the Senate. I have been honored to be on it my entire 13 
years in this body. No Ohioan ever served on this committee as long as 
I have. I consider that a privilege, No. 1, and an opportunity to pay 
people back.
  I didn't serve in the military. I know Senator Isakson did. President 
Trump had deferments from Vietnam. He didn't serve in the military. I 
think that maybe perhaps, because I didn't serve in the military, I 
should work a little bit harder to make sure those people, most of whom 
are older than I by a little bit, during the Vietnam war--that they be 
treated better than they were by the country and by the public upon 
their return from Vietnam; that they, in this case, get the benefit of 
the doubt and the history of what happened with Agent Orange.
  You may remember years and years ago, veterans--people who had fought 
in Vietnam and had been exposed to Agent Orange--had to prove, 
initially, case by case, why they got sick, which was darn near 
impossible, especially when you are sick, trying to do that and go 
through that pain.
  Congress, on a bipartisan basis, did the right thing back then. They 
put a list of these illnesses together that exposure to Agent Orange 
was likely responsible for. If you had one of these illnesses and you 
were boots on the ground in Vietnam, you automatically qualified. You 
didn't have to fight in court. You didn't have to get lawyers or do any 
of that. That was then.
  Now, even though Secretary Shulkin--and I don't know how many 
Secretaries have come and gone. The President can't seem to keep 
Secretaries of the VA or staff of the VA because of the erratic policy 
he follows with veterans. The President of the United States goes to 
New York and makes a great speech about veterans, and we all applaud 
that, but then he is not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. 
These are four illnesses Secretary Shulkin thought--you heard the term 
I used earlier, which is the term he used--he used the term about these 
conditions that it was ``imperative'' that we do something.
  I understand as well as anybody how important it is to protect 
taxpayers. I also remember less than 2 years ago that Congress gave a 
tax cut--hundreds of billions of dollars, and 70 percent of it went to 
the richest 1 percent of people in this country--and we can't come up 
with a few billion dollars to help veterans who are dying from these 
four illnesses? We can't expand this list and give them healthcare as 
we try to comfort them at the VA in Cleveland and Dayton and Cincinnati 
and Columbus and in Atlanta--all over? This is no end run around 
process. These aren't four illnesses I heard somebody talk about in 
Steubenville or Cleveland that ought to be covered. These are four 
illnesses the VA has looked at, the scientific community has looked at, 
the medical community has looked at, and Secretary Shulkin--who served 
as Secretary of the VA, appointed by President Trump, initially was 
acting under President Obama--we can't give them the benefit of the 
doubt? This is no end run. We can't give them the benefit of the doubt 
and say, yes, we should cover this. I hope the chairman of the 
Veterans' Committee--that at some point we can sit down and talk and he 
can reconsider.
  Why do we think we need to protect President Trump, who, like me, 
didn't serve in the military? For me, it--I will not get into that. But 
why can't we help these veterans and give them the benefit of the 
doubt, cover these illnesses, and move forward with the VA taking care 
of people the way we should?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.