Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 530, as amended. The bill was introduced by my friend and fellow veteran, Representative Pfluger. This bill would ensure there is trusted medical research available to pave the way for toxic-exposed military pilots and air crew to assess their VA disability compensation benefits. As someone who served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, I am troubled by how many times I have heard from my fellow aviators that military pilots and air crewmen appear to be diagnosed with cancer at much higher rates than civilians. Colonel Andrew Shurtleff, who testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee in March, is one of those veterans. He served our country as an Air Force fighter pilot, and he started fighting stage IV cancer in 2019 when he was just 41 years old. My prayers are with him as he continues to battle cancer, and I wish him the very best. Military pilots and air crewmen across the service branches, like Colonel Shurtleff, are exposed to chemicals and toxic fumes in confined spaces every time they fly a mission. However, there is not enough medical research available for VA to simply presume that their cancers are related to those exposures. That makes it much harder for them to access their earned VA benefits. Each one of those veterans has to prove to the VA that chemicals and toxins caused their cancer.…”