Richard Burr

Therefore, I would like you to send me a copy of it when you do.

I do not want to get into the NRC results with the Veterans Administration.

It is about making sure that we get the most pertinent information to all the people that can affect the best long-term quality-of-life for the individuals that may or may not have been affected.

The Navy sent out letters to veterans stationed at Camp Lejeune between 1957 and 1987, encouraged them to participate in the health registry.

I want to make sure a VA doctor knows exactly where that person was so that they can see them and treat them based upon what their exposure might be.

This Committee has struggled to try to make seamless the handoff of active duty troops to our Veterans Administration.

I think in an effort to try to provide a fresh start, my hope is that we can identify that we have done some things wrong in the past and that now it is time to make the commitment to get the information we need to know how to go forward.

If I happen to visit any VA facility in the country, how familiar would that person who sees that veteran coming in--that doc in that facility--be about Camp Lejeune potential contamination if in fact they found somebody that met that…

That would suggest that there is a human risk to those burn pits.

I take for granted somewhere there exists a memorandum stating that information to them?

We do not do anything proactive from a standpoint of the VA to reach out to those individuals?

Earlier this year, in the Defense Authorization Bill, I offered an amendment to study the issue of burn pits.

The 140,000-plus name registry has been provided to the VA?

I think even though you are in a very specialized area, I would think that you would be consulted on a decision like that.

Isn't that essential to the performance of your job, the delivery of health care to individuals?

What actions would you like to see Congress, the Department of Defense, and/or Veterans Affairs do with regard to the exposures you are faced with and others have been faced with at Camp Lejeune?

Why was NRC not asked to review a broader set of risks?

As you know, I have introduced legislation that would explicitly authorize the VA to care for veterans and family members that show illnesses that might be the result of their time at Camp Lejeune.

Providing health care to veterans and their families would be one step toward meeting our moral obligation to those who have put more at risk.

Why would we rather wait to see if I pass legislation versus initiate the authority of the Secretary to create through that general authority the coverage for individuals that we fear might have a condition which is the result of having…

It is simply not right for us to continue to tell our veterans and their families to just wait for another study.

We have an obligation to figure out how much of these dangerous chemicals veterans and their families were exposed to at Camp Lejeune and what impact these exposures had potentially on their health.

I want to thank you for calling what I think is an extremely important hearing.

I would only point this out that--I think this is at the root of part of the misunderstanding, was it or wasn't it?

In one of those documents I just mentioned, Dr. Nuckols, it was noted that the National Research Council's Hazard Evaluation in the Camp Lejeune report, and I quote, 'did not take into account that benzene and vinyl chloride were…