[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 10, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S57]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin

  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I am going to be brief.
  I decided this morning that I wanted to come and talk about the 
events involving Secretary Austin and what we now know are his 
challenges with prostate cancer. I want to look at it from two 
different perspectives.
  One, I want to be very brief. I think that Secretary Austin made a 
mistake by not notifying Members of Congress and by not notifying the 
administration--in other words, moving through the transition. I think 
that was a mistake, and I hope Secretary Austin has learned from that. 
But I am not here to talk about that. That was just a mistake. It 
shouldn't have been made, particularly in the circumstances we are in 
now with conflicts in Israel, conflicts in Ukraine, threats across the 
world, and threats to this country.
  I am here to talk about this because it was 2 years ago this month 
that I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I made a decision very 
quickly after I learned about it. It took me about a month. I had gone 
to my doctor for my annual checkup. You always check your PSA. I found 
out in probably the September-October timeframe that my PSA was up. I 
went back for a followup exam through the Christmas holiday. Then, in 
the first or second week of January 2021, my doctor said: You have 
prostate cancer, and you need to take some course of action. And there 
are several different courses of action, but I made the immediate 
decision to be public with the fact that I was going through prostate 
cancer.
  Secretary Austin chose not to. For any individual person, that is 
your right. I hope you are not embarrassed by the fact that you have 
cancer any more than a woman would be embarrassed for having breast 
cancer, because back in the day, when breast cancer was stigmatized, a 
lot of women died because they were ashamed of something they had no 
control over.
  So my point is that Secretary Austin is a global figure. Secretary 
Austin is somebody whom people around the world know. Secretary Austin, 
as personal as it is to have to deal with a cancer diagnosis, needs to 
know, as a public figure--I, as a U.S. Senator; he, as the Secretary of 
Defense--has an obligation to save lives. And one of the ways you save 
lives, when you get prostate cancer as a male, is to not be ashamed of 
it and to tell other males. Any male who has a history of prostate 
cancer--and their family--needs to tell those young men, you don't get 
to wait until you are 40 to get a PSA test; you should start getting it 
when you are 30. And every man over 40 should be getting a PSA test 
every year. And then do your homework. Study the courses of therapy, 
whether it was, in my case, a procedure similar to what Secretary 
Austin got--removal of the prostate; it could be hormone therapy; it 
could be radiation therapy.
  Cancer--and prostate cancer in particular--is one of the most 
treatable cancers there is. It is highly likely I still have cancer. 
The goal with prostate cancer is to die with it, not from it, right? 
Die with it, not from it. You can manage this cancer, but you can only 
manage it if public officials like Secretary Austin and U.S. Senators 
step up and are not ashamed of it but try to make sure everybody else 
understands it is something that is out of your control. You confront 
it, and you beat it.
  So the reason for my comments today was to use this opportunity to 
remind men across this country and across this world: Don't be ashamed 
of prostate cancer. Don't be ashamed of some of the side effects that 
may or may not occur. Have the courage to tell everybody that you are 
going to take it on and you are going to win. By mentioning it and 
sharing this conversation, like I am today, hopefully you are going to 
save a few more lives.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. HICKENLOOOPER). The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled 
vote proceed immediately.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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