[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4534-S4535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--CALENDAR NO. 153

  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I will rephrase this one more time.
  I would ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive 
session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 153--for 
those who want to know, that is Matthew T. Quinn of Montana; that the 
nomination be confirmed and the motion to reconsider be considered made 
and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no 
further motions be in order to any other nomination; and that the 
President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate 
resume legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana is recognized.
  Mr. TESTER. Last month, four well-qualified, noncontroversial 
nominees were unanimously voted out of the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee--unanimously voted out of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, 
which Senator Blackburn sits on. Here is who these people are:
  Don Remy, a veteran, has been nominated as VA Deputy Secretary--VA 
Deputy Secretary. That is second in command. If Senator Blackburn wants 
quick reaction from the VA on toxic exposure, maybe Senator Blackburn 
shouldn't hold that nominee of the No. 2 position of the Department, a 
nominee specifically tasked with coordinating VA's work with the 
Defense Department, which includes issues like--guess what--toxic 
exposure. But that is all right. We will leave him sitting at home. We 
will leave the veterans out in the cold.
  Then there is Patricia Ross, who is nominated to be Assistant 
Secretary for Congressional Affairs. So if Senator Blackburn wants more 
information from the VA on legislation and how much it costs, maybe the 
Senator shouldn't hold the nominee tasked with getting that information 
from the VA to Congress, but she is.
  Then, there is Maryanne Donaghy, nominated as Assistant Secretary for 
Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. I want to tell you that 
whistleblowers regularly come to us with reports of waste, fraud, and 
abuse.
  Folks love to condemn the VA--we heard a lot about it a second ago--
when it fails to hold its workforce accountable. I recommend that, if 
Senator Blackburn wants to request accountability at the VA, maybe the 
Senator shouldn't hold the nominee tasked with employee accountability 
and whistleblower protection.
  Then, there is Matt Quinn--someone that I know very, very well 
because he comes from the State of Montana--for director of cemetery 
affairs. So when people die, no one is there in the VA to take care of 
this issue.
  Once again, all four people--critically important people--whom the 
Senator voted for to get out of committee are now being held by the 
Senator.
  I am going to tell you that, if we want to hold the VA accountable 
today in a situation where we are coming out of a pandemic, this is not 
the way to do it. The bottom line is that if you want a VA that can 
function, then, we have to have that VA staffed up.
  Don't talk to me or anybody else in this body about distressed 
veterans and then say: You know what. We are going to stop the No. 2. 
We are going to stop the VA person who is supposed to talk to us. We 
are going to stop the cemetery person. We will stop the whistleblower 
person. That is really helping veterans.
  Quite frankly, it is just the contrary.
  I pride myself on running a committee that is very bipartisan, and 
the VA Committee may be the best, not because of me but because of 
people like Jerry Moran, John Boozman, people like Patty Murray. Those 
people step up to the plate every day, and they do what is right for 
veterans.
  Let's talk about the toxic exposure bill. Let's talk about that bill. 
In World War I, we had mustard gas. The VA had no capacity to deal with 
those veterans. In World War II, we had radiation. The VA had no 
capacity. In the Vietnam war, we had Agent Orange. And, by the way, 
they died, they died, and they died again because this body refuses to 
give the VA the tools they need to take care of our veterans, and now 
we are doing the same thing with burn pits.
  I am here to tell you that I had a veteran stand up in my very first 
year on the VA Committee. A Vietnam veteran stood up in the back of the 
room in a townhall and said: You are not going to treat this generation 
of veterans like you treated ours, the Vietnam veterans.
  Well, I tell you what: If we want to close the door and we want to 
delay and we want to push back what is going on with burn pits, then, 
let's have them die.
  You were at the hearing that the lung transplant guy was at. We had 
to juggle that hearing so he could even be at it because he was on 
medication.
  The bottom line is people are dying every day.
  By the way, we are still not done with Agent Orange, hypertension, 
and MGUS, which are in this bill. They will die. Some more of them will 
die.
  We send our young people off to war. They come back changed, and we 
don't have the guts to step up and debate the bill. When I give the 
ranking member the authority to stop that bill from coming to the 
floor, we are still going to make excuses? Give me a break.
  I am going to tell you what. I have been in this body for probably 
too long. We turn around and we try to do the right things, and we have 
people who say: You know, send our young people off to war at the drop 
of the hat. Send them off to war. Send them off to war.

[[Page S4535]]

  And then they come back, and they are changed, and we say we are not 
going to take care of them because we need information right now, this 
very minute, when it is not even on the floor. We need the 
information--when I have already made a commitment to the ranking 
member that we are going to have this information. But, no, what we are 
going to do is we are going to stop the VA from having a slate of 
candidates so they can do their jobs and service the veterans.
  Guess what. I am not a veteran. This doesn't impact me, but it 
impacts the veterans in my State, some 100,000 of them--1 in 10 
Montanans--and, in fact, veterans all across this country.
  We can sit here and we can play these games of holding up nominees to 
fill critical Agency departments, and we can play them and play them 
and play them again, and we can say we are doing it on behalf of the 
veterans. That is bull--you got it--total bull.
  We have a job to do here, folks. If we don't want to confirm well-
qualified folks, then, why don't we just shut down the VA? Why don't we 
tell McDonough that he is out of luck, that we are not going to send 
him any help? And then we start making demands.
  The bottom line is this, folks: All the things Senator Blackburn is 
concerned about, I made a commitment with the ranking member that we 
are going to get those questions answered, and we will get them 
answered with good information. And then if the ranking member 
consents, we will have a vote and we will have debate, and we will make 
a determination whether this is the right thing to do.
  But just to say, ``No, we are stopping everything right now; no more 
toxic exposure bill until I get this information because we are not 
going to send you the staff to do your job,'' doesn't make a lot of 
sense to me. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And in the process 
our veterans suffer. That veteran who has hypertension dies--one less 
problem for the VA, because we created the problem right here today.
  I would ask Senator Blackburn to reconsider her hold so we can get 
the VA the staff they need so they can do their job.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, you know, it is truly an honor to work 
with the veterans in Tennessee, and we have hundreds of thousands of 
veterans in our State.
  I know that the chairman says he prides himself in working with the 
veterans. I will tell you, quite frankly, I consider it a humbling 
experience to work with these veterans. Whether they are from World War 
II or Korea or Vietnam or whether they are from any of our recent 
wars--the Mideast--whether we are dealing with Agent Orange or burn 
pits, to me it is heart-wrenching to hear their stories.
  And the VA has not done their job. So what we are doing is standing 
up for these veterans and saying to the VA: Get your act together. 
Provide this information. How do you deal with this backlog? Do you 
have the capability to deal with what we are discussing? Do you have 
that capability? What is your capacity? How do we best handle these 
issues?
  The VA, for years--decades, decades, decades--has not done their job 
in a timely manner, in a responsive manner to our Nation's veterans. 
Therefore, let's say: Let's get this right. Let's get it right.
  Excuse me. There is a fly in this Chamber.
  Let's get it right now.

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