Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I commend the hard work and the efforts and the passion that Representative Takano, the ranking member on the committee and previous chair, has given to this issue. The hard work finally has paid off, and for that we thank him. For far too long, our Nation has failed to honor its promise to all our veterans who are victims of toxic exposures. It is our sacred obligation, I believe, to take care of the troops we send in harm's way--that is the American way--and to take care of them and their families when they return home. Sadly, nearly 3.5 million veterans have been exposed to the contaminants such as burn pits, toxic fragments, radiation, and other hazardous materials during their deployment. Until the mid-2010s, the burn pits were commonly used in Iraq and Afghanistan and other locations to dispose of waste collected at military bases. Well, we have discovered that the aftermath has resulted in drastic impacts to those veterans. Nearly 3.5 million deployed veterans were exposed to burn pits in the last 30 years. Think about that, 3.5 million veterans. Mr. Speaker, 70 percent of the disability claims involving these toxic exposures were denied--they were denied by the Veterans Administration, and that is just wrong--leaving many of them, including 750,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, without any benefits. That is disgraceful. House Democrats and President Biden fought like hell to change this, and we did.…”