Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 586, the Vietnam Veterans Liver Fluke Cancer Study Act, as amended. Liver fluke is a serious parasitic infection that is a well- recognized risk factor for the development of bile duct cancer. H.R. 586, as amended, would require VA, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to commence an epidemiological study on the prevalence of bile duct cancer in veterans who served in the Vietnam war versus their nonveteran U.S. resident counterparts. This legislation requires VA to submit a report with the results of the study broken out by age, gender, race, ethnicity, and geographic location. I certainly understand why Vietnam war veterans would be concerned about their exposure to this disease and believe we should do everything possible to ensure veterans have access to care and treatment for diseases they may have been exposed to as a part of their service. However, I must note that the context in which we are considering this legislation is vastly different than the last time the bill was considered by the House just under 7 months ago. In fact, under Secretary Kennedy's leadership in the past week, the CDC, or Centers for Disease Control, has cut 18 percent of its workforce.…”