Mike Thompson: “I am glad to hear all these great amendments that have been made in order, and I was glad to hear my friend from Alabama…”

“I am glad to hear all these great amendments that have been made in order, and I was glad to hear my friend from Alabama reference the fact that this is a bill to make the people of America safe. I rise in opposition to this rule because there was one amendment that makes the people of America safe that was omitted from the list that was approved. It was a bipartisan amendment by myself, Mr. Young from Alaska, and Mr. Jones from North Carolina that would declassify a 50-year-old DOD project that sprayed biological and chemical weapons on our servicemembers and some civilians, and that amendment was not made in order. Convulsions, paralysis, respiratory failure, and death--those are just a few of the most severe side effects of sarin gas, a chemical weapon so deadly and debilitating that it was outlawed as a weapon of mass destruction. When Syria's military used it, we retaliated. But in the 1960s and 1970s, the United States Department of Defense sprayed biological and chemical weapons like sarin, VX nerve gas, and e. coli on our own servicemembers. In the years since, many of those exposed have suffered debilitating health effects. For 40 years, the Department of Defense has not provided a comprehensive public accounting of these tests nor have they notified all the veterans and all the civilians who were potentially exposed. We can't allow this information to continue to be released piecemeal. These veterans can't wait any longer.…”