Johnny Isakson: “Reserving the right to object, I want to say to my committee member how much I appreciate his dedicated work. In the…”

“Reserving the right to object, I want to say to my committee member how much I appreciate his dedicated work. In the committee, we work on a lot of things, including the diseases in here, getting presumptive conclusions done so we can cover as much as possible, but medicine is not exact. Diseases are not exact. Circumstances are not exact. When you make a decision to include a benefit for our veterans, you are making a commitment to spend that money from the taxpayers of the United States of America. In the committee--and the Senator is part of it, and he knows this because I helped him a lot--we just approved blue water Navy funds, which is going to be one of the largest increases in the history of benefits going to our veterans. We are circumventing into that some of the due diligence--which you really ought to do before you make a presumption of the diseases caused in all cases. I am an alumni of the Georgia Air National Guard and a veteran. I am chairman of the committee. I think the world of the Senator from Ohio. What he is trying to do is great and right, just as he wanted to lead us to help get us where we got to on the blue water Navy funds, but I object to this motion as one who would benefit because I have Parkinson's. I went into service during the 1960s, during a year that would be considered the Vietnam era. I didn't serve in Vietnam, but I served in that era, so I would have consideration if I got Parkinson's disease--which I have Parkinson's.…”