Johnny Isakson: “Reserving the right to object and to take a couple minutes to give the Members the facts they need to make a decision…”

“Reserving the right to object and to take a couple minutes to give the Members the facts they need to make a decision tonight, I want to say a couple things. I am chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. There are many Members in this Chamber who know their responsibility to that committee is greater than any other. I come down tonight to speak on an issue that has been bothering me and has been festering for years, but nobody has ever done anything about it. Nobody has ever done the hard work of saying this is what we need to do, and this is why we need to do it this way. Well, the House has finally done it this year, and we have done it. Granted, this is a UC motion and not a debate on the floor. It is because we finally addressed all the issues everybody said about the blue water bill that they didn't like, except that some people would like to say it differently. Some people want another study even though we have studied it enough to do it. Some people want to wait until the VA says they need to do this, that, or the other. Some people say the VA could call and will tell you the other. Somebody said we don't even have the right numbers of how many people this might affect. Nobody has the right number about how many people will get sick in the future from a disease we don't know exists until the time they contract it. What happened in this case is very simple.…”