On the recordDecember 10, 2018
I ask unanimous consent that the November 29, 2018, letter from the Congressional Budget Office regarding H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, be printed in the Congressional Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Congressional Budget Office, U.S. Congress, Washington, DC, November 29, 2018. Hon. Mike Enzi, Chairman, Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Chairman: On May 15, 2018, the Congressional Budget Office transmitted an estimate of the budgetary effects of H.R. 299, a bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify presumptions relating to the exposure of certain veterans who served in the vicinity of the Republic of Vietnam, and for other purposes, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs on May 8, 2018. Among other things, the act would provide disability compensation to more of the veterans who served in the territorial seas of Vietnam during the Vietnam War under the assumption that they had been exposed to Agent Orange, a blend of herbicides used by the Department of Defense to remove dense tropical foliage. CBO estimated that those provisions would increase direct spending by about $900 million over the 2019-2028 period. The bill that was passed by the House amended the earlier version to expand the nautical area in which veterans would be presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange.…
