Political Quotes

“Let me add that Representative Ruiz--Dr. Ruiz was instrumental in the part of this PACT Act package that dealt with the 23 presumptive illnesses. Let's be clear that the 23 presumptive illnesses aren't just 23 diseases. They are actually buckets, Mr. Speaker, 23 buckets, we are talking more like 300 illnesses that are covered by the PACT Act. We endeavored hard to make sure that veterans did not have to wait decades for all of the hard scientific evidence to come in. We relied on analogues, such as the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, and the toxic substances that our first responders were subjected to, and we observed that those first responders had a pattern of illnesses that began to arise in numbers that did not match what would be in the general population and we could use such approaches to begin to identify those very similar kinds of diseases that were arising from exposure to toxic burn pits. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa), a longtime advocate for veterans.”