Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleagues Senator Brown, Senator Tester, most importantly, Senator Gillibrand, and our good friend Senator Isakson. Senator Isakson and Senator Gillibrand and I worked together closely on this issue when I was the ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. We engaged the VA through hearings, through meetings, through any way that we could reach the VA so that it would grant the presumption to all veterans who served in the territorial waters of Vietnam during the Vietnam war and were exposed to Agent Orange, to give them simple justice, and to treat them with the same presumption of service-connected disability as their fellow veterans who served in the Vietnam conflict with boots on the ground. If they served in those territorial waters, they deserve that same presumption. Beyond the abstraction here, I want to talk about the face and voice of this problem, which, for me, is my good friend Gerry Wright. Gerry Wright rode across this country on a motorcycle. The mantra on the motorcycle was ``Sprayed and Betrayed.'' Gerry Wright is a victim of Agent Orange. He suffers from some of the same conditions as those brave veterans who served with boots on the ground. He joined me, along with Paul Scappaticci, Cinthia Johnson, and Gary Monk on Veterans Day. Just as he rode across the country, we came together to raise awareness about this issue.…”