Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am delighted to join Senator Tester on the floor as ranking member of the Veterans' Committee, and he and I as chairman have worked together on many, many issues. And today, we are glad to come to the floor and tell the Senate how much we appreciate what they did last night in letting the unanimous consent motion pass to see to it that the blue water Navy legislation that we worked on for so many years became effective. I could take a long time explaining it, but basically it is very simple. Those who served in Vietnam and represented our country on the battlefields and at sea have been divided on the benefits they got for their service. Blue water Navy folks did not get service because it was not contemplated that they would have Agent Orange exposure by being on a ship, whereas our veterans who were on the ground got benefits because they were on the ground, and it was assumed that they did get exposure to Agent Orange. The fact of the matter is, sailors on the ships could have been exposed to Agent Orange. So the veterans on our ships were really as equal in their opportunity to have gotten exposed to Agent Orange, so they should be equally open to getting the benefit. Because of Senator Tester's work, the testament and work of every member, the committee--I can't name anybody who didn't work on it at one time or another. Some negative, some positively--but all positive in the end because we were unanimous.…”