Floor Statements

Mr. President, interesting time we have here in the U.S. Senate. When the Democrats took over this body, we were coming out of a pandemic and not even close to being fully out of the pandemic yet. If you think back then, people didn't have shots in their arms, the economy was in tough shape, and Democrats responded in a way that helped turn this economy around and helped put us on firm footing as a leading economic driver in this world.

It is interesting as I hear some of my folks on the other side of the aisle talk about things like inflation as it applies to food. I happen to have a couple of bills that will deal with that issue, and hopefully we can take it up in the lameduck. I don't think we are going to have time to take it up before the election. But that will help not only our cow-calf producers but also consumers when it comes to meat prices. I would hope that we get a large number of folks from across the aisle to support us on that.

When we talk about the southern border and we talk about national security--and I am going to approach national security in a little different vein here with this CR--I think it is important to note that folks bring up a lot of things wrong, with few solutions.

The bottom line is that we need more manpower and we need more technology on the southern border. I have been down there, and I have seen how these folks bring drugs across the line. They don't put it in backpacks--some, but very little. Most come across in cars and trucks and equipment. If we have the technology to be able to, for

lack of a better term, x-ray these vehicles, we can make a big inroad on what is going on from a drug standpoint. If we have the manpower-- which, by the way, we are very undermanned as far as Border Patrol and border protection--we could make inroads into illegal border crossings also.

Continuing Resolution

Mr. President, I am not here to talk about any of that stuff, per se. What I do want to talk about is a thing called a continuing resolution because that is what we are going to vote on hopefully today or tomorrow. Without this continuing resolution, we will be shutting down the government, so I would encourage all my fellow Senators to vote for this continuing resolution.

I am going to approach it from my position as chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, the committee that funds our military. Our Armed Forces need this funding, this continuing resolution, for their paychecks, along with the thousands of civilian employees whom the Department of Defense employs.

The fact that we are debating a continuing resolution instead of a full government funding bill is truly disappointing. It is disappointing because Federal Government funding is Congress's primary job. People of Montana did not send me to the U.S. Senate to play politics and put off work that needs to be done to another day; they sent me here to get the job done. Failing to pass this CR would harm families, businesses, agriculture all across our great Nation. So step 1 is passing this continuing resolution, not kicking the can further down the road.

But let's do ourselves a favor. Let's make sure that this is the last CR before we agree to fiscal year 2023's funding package. I can tell you that after working for the last nearly 2 years as chair of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, that this bill shouldn't be about politics or partisanship; it should be about national security, keeping our Nation safe. But by continuing to pass CRs, our military will be operating on outdated budgets, our troops will not have the resources that they need to operate at the highest level, and it will waste taxpayer money.

Make no mistake about it, there are countries out there that wish to do us harm. With every continuing resolution, we are giving our enemies--and I don't need to bring them up per list--the ability to take a second breath and come after us: Russia in Ukraine; China, which is rapidly modernizing their military and threatening our technological edge. This is happening, along with a bunch of other stuff, while we are limiting our military's ability to assess emerging threats around the globe.

Without a full appropriations package, our Armed Forces lack certainty needed to operate to their fullest potential--certainty that is so important for everything. It is important for business, it is important for families, and it is important for our armed services.

I know what it takes to craft these bills because, quite honestly, we worked on a pretty darned good appropriations bill, but we weren't allowed to bring it up. For the sake of our national security and for our men and women in uniform, we need to work in a bipartisan way.

If you want to talk about what is wrong with this country, the main thing that is wrong with this country is we point to the different issues and areas that we could do better on. The main thing that is wrong with this country right now is dysfunction in Washington, DC, and the fact that this place is totally divided, and everything is about politics first and policy second.

We need to find common ground. Failure to find common ground puts our troops and our Nation and, quite frankly, the whole world in danger.

I will close by saying that my colleagues need to pass this resolution, and we need to make sure that this is the last continuing resolution that we pass; that, in fact, we have full appropriations bills done in the proper timeline, which is at the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of September. Anything less should be considered a failure.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I would like to share a few words today to honor the life and service of Private John Shaughnessy, a first- class Montanan and World War I veteran.

A native son of the Treasure State, John was born and raised in Missoula. His father, John A. Shaughnessy, was one of Missoula's pioneer builders who constructed a portion of the original buildings at Fort Missoula.

Never one to shy away from service or sacrifice, John answered the call to duty at the outbreak of World War I by enlisting in the U.S. Army. He was a member of the 339th Infantry and served in the American North Russia Expeditionary force, more commonly known as the Polar Bear Expedition.

During that expedition, Private Shaughnessy sadly contracted and died

of pneumonia in Archangel, Russia, on September 15, 1918. He was buried in the American cemetery in the town until his body was able to be removed and returned to Missoula in 1929.

While Private Shaughnessy was finally laid to rest in his native land, he never received the proper military headstone he deserved and earned.

It is my honor to say today, 104 years after his passing, Private Shaughnessy will at last receive his long-overdue military headstone in Missoula.

While our debt of gratitude to him can never be fully repaid, this military honor rightly ensures his sacrifices in service to our Nation will never be forgotten.

He is an American hero who has made Montana proud, and our country would not be what it is today without him and others in uniform who put their life on the line in return for our freedoms.

On behalf of myself and a grateful nation, I extend our deepest appreciation to him and his family.

Madam President, I call up amendment No. 5480, and I ask that it be reported by number.

Madam President, this amendment is actually quite simple. It is to make sure that we have a comprehensive plan in place before title 42 is lifted. Very straightforward. This is not whether title 42 should ever be lifted or not; rather, it is about making sure that we are doing the right thing at the right time, which I believe is when the COVID-19 national emergency is lifted and when we have a plan in place.

I would urge a ``yea'' vote.

Madam President, before I make my motion, I would just say we were here earlier this week on a different bill that had nothing to do with the Budget Act.

Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, I move to waive section 313 of that act for the purpose of this provision, and I would ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I stand in front of this body, yet again, to urge the passage of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act.

Before I get into my remarks, Senator Moran is on the floor, and I listened to a good portion of what he had to say.

I just want to say thank you, Senator Moran. As a team member on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, for the last year and a half, we have been working in good faith to get a bill that addresses the challenges of toxic exposure that our veterans, quite honestly, have endured since World War I. With the burn pits and Agent Orange and radiation exposure that this bill addresses, I would just say that we would not be here today if we had not both committed to work together to get to a result that, hopefully--I was a little more sure last week than I am today, but, hopefully, we will get to a point where this bill passes.

We have talked about this bill a lot, and we have talked about what it does. Basically, what it does is to make sure that the veterans who have been exposed to toxins--in this case, burn pits but also, as I said before, Agent Orange and radiation--are made whole again.

So we get these folks; we train them to be warriors; and we send these men and women off to war. We tell them to go out and protect our freedoms and protect this country. They do it, and, oftentimes, things happen that change their lives. Sometimes those are injuries we can see, and sometimes we can't see them. In this particular case, with toxic burn pits, they come home, and they have developed disorders because they have breathed these toxins in.

If anybody has ever been around a burning barrel that has plastics in it, you know exactly what I am talking about. You breathe these toxins in, and it causes cancer, and it causes lung issues.

The problem is that these folks couldn't get away. These burn pits were right outside the camps; they were right next to the chow line; they were right next to the beds they slept in, and they had to breathe this garbage, sometimes day and night. It has resulted in some pretty serious injuries that have resulted oftentimes in death.

Now, the reason I say that is that, over the last year and a half, the Senate's Veterans' Affairs Committee has had several hearings, and we have had witnesses come forth who have been impacted by burn pits and toxic exposure. I can tell you that some of those folks aren't with us today. The toxins got them. So not only was the veteran's life ended, which is unfortunate in and of itself, but also the family who was dependent on that veteran had their lives turned upside down.

So it is time that we set that record straight and make sure that those folks who have been impacted by war are taken care of. I hope that there is nobody in this body who thinks that that is unreasonable because the truth is, I think most of the folks in this body have been to the Middle East and have seen what a different world that is and how it makes me damned glad to be a Montanan and to be an American.

But we have got the ability today to step up and do the right thing. There have been a lot of claims made over the last week or two. I would go into those claims and refute those claims, but, quite frankly, I don't see the sense in it. If the folks here haven't read this bill and if they haven't read the letter that I sent out to every Senator in this body earlier today, I would ask that you would. If you have any questions, come run me down, and I will answer any of them.

The fact is, we have done this whole process in a very transparent manner--with no surprises, no last-minute stuff put into this bill, no slush funds. This is a bill that will work for this country; that will work for the taxpayers in this country; and that will work, most importantly, for the veterans and their families.

We have an opportunity, as I said last week, to do the right thing today. We have an opportunity to have the American people be proud of the Senate and the work they do. I would hope we would get a resounding vote on this bill, and I would hope that we wouldn't amend it and for it to have to go back to the House because that, once again, would delay benefits and do real damage to this bill.

So I would ask my fellow Senators, when they come to the floor and vote, to think about the veterans who are standing outside the Capitol out here, to think about the veterans in your home State, and to think about the veterans whom you met while they were on Active Duty on your codels. Remember them, and do the right thing: vote to pass the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act.

I yield back all remaining time.

Vote on Motion to Concur

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, the Toomey amendment does place an arbitrary limit on the amount of funding that Congress can spend each year in support of veterans, those are called caps. Don't take my word for it. That comes from the Appropriations Committee and the Budgets Committee. And when you place caps, that results in rationing of care.

Look, just like every other mandatory account that the VA has, you come forth as part of the President's budget; the VA has to justify it; Congress, Congress, Congress details the estimates and needs for the funds, for the purpose, whether it is toxic exposure or anything else; it will be reviewed as part of the standard appropriation process.

I would recommend, if you don't trust your appropriators, to put somebody else on the committee, because that is what this all comes down to, is the appropriators. I would ask you to vote no on this amendment.

Vote on Motion to Concur

The Blackburn amendment would provide automatic eligibility to community care for any toxic-exposed veteran for any condition. However, I want to make it clear that if a veteran should ever need care the VA cannot provide, they are automatically eligible in that case.

We can talk about the cost. We can talk about the accountability. We could talk about the timelines of going into the private sector. Unfortunately,

we don't have those times, and we don't have those metrics, but what we do know is this. The VA is a leader in healthcare in treating our veterans for diseases and conditions as a result of their military service, and more than that, time after time after time again, we have heard that veterans prefer getting their care from the VA. We should not privatize the VA. That is what this amendment is about. I would appreciate a ``no'' vote.

Vote on Motion to Concur

Mr. President, 15 years ago, when I was appointed to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I had a Vietnam veteran come up to me and say: ``You are not going to treat this generation of veterans like you have treated us.'' This bill rights that and makes that veteran's request come true. Why? Because we are dealing with toxic exposure. In fact, we are even dealing with it with Agent Orange and the burn pits.

This fully pays the cost of war, and I would encourage everybody in this body to vote for this motion.

Madam President, 86 to 11. 86 to 11. We have been fighting for this for decades--for decades. And I will tell you that the last few days have not been particularly easy for me, and they have been even more difficult for the veterans around this Nation who thought they had a benefit on June 16 and then found out that it wasn't there.

But today, the Senate took the historic step of delivering healthcare and benefits to all eras of veterans by the passage of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, otherwise known as the PACT Act.

For hundreds of thousands of veterans of all generations, for our all-volunteer military, this bill puts us on a path to finally paying the cost of war.

Look, I take my cues from the veterans as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. When I first introduced this bill last year, we set out with a clear goal to right the wrongs of decades of inaction and failure by us--the U.S. Government--to provide all eras of toxic-exposed veterans the VA care and benefits that they have earned.

We knew the only way to do this was to put forth a comprehensive package that took care of our past, present, and future veterans. I am grateful--and I mean this--this wouldn't have happened without my good friends Ranking Member Jerry Moran, John Boozman, and Martin Heinrich. We all worked together to make sure that this toxic exposure package came together so we could have the vote we had today, with help from both sides of the aisle.

I am thankful for the leadership of President Joe Biden who addressed this issue in his State of the Union speech and got the ball rolling; to the VA Secretary, Denis McDonough, for his leadership as Secretary of the VA, and the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, Mark Takano, and so many others that I can't even list them all, so I am not going to start down this line.

This bill is legislation we envisioned when we set out to right wrongs of our toxic-exposed veterans. The PACT Act recognizes that responsibility, and it recognizes the cost of war.

Veterans service organizations across this country and the veterans they represent and the advocates have understood this for a long time. That is why not only have they been incredible partners in this, but that is why this has been the No. 1 issue for veterans service organizations in this country--the No. 1 issue.

And, in fact, so important to them and the folks that pretty much left here--the Chamber--but it is so important to them that they were willing to sleep on the steps of the Capitol for the last 5 days. Now, you might not think that is a big deal, but it isn't exactly nice in Washington, DC, the 1st of August or the end of July.

And last night, we had one heck of a thunderstorm, rolled me right out of bed. Those folks were out there. They were making their names be heard. They were making the policies be heard that they fought for.

And I am just going to say one more thing: If you take a look at our military, the finest in the world, there is a reason for that. There is a reason for that. And that reason is these folks are willing to get the job done, and they did. And that is why we got a vote of 86 to 11.

That is why folks said: Enough is enough. We are not doing any more games; we are going to vote on this bill. That is what the folks sent us here to Washington, DC, to do, and we did it.

And I couldn't be prouder of the U.S. Senate, but I am also more proud of the folks who served this country in the military and their families. I got on this floor earlier today and said: The longer we delay, the longer we are going to deny healthcare for our veterans and veterans are going to continue to be in crisis and they are going to continue to die. Now, we have passed the bill that rights that wrong, that is going to help these veterans across the board. And I think we are going to see improvement in all sorts of things--not only the diseases caused by toxic exposure, but the mental health that is also associated with service to this country.

We put politics aside. We delivered results through action, through real action. And we said thank you to the men and women who have served in our military. Thank you for what you have done for this country. Thank you for protecting our freedoms. Thank you for keeping us safe.

And most importantly, we told them you held up your end of the bargain; we held up ours.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, it seems a bit like deja vu all over again. We have been here before. We were here before the Fourth of July talking about the PACT Act, the toxic exposure bill, the bill that has been in the works for 15 years and that the ranking member and I have worked on very hard over the last 18 months, year and a half.

We are going to vote on it again here in a moment. This is a bill that has been talked about a lot on this floor, and just about everything has been said about this bill. It is a bill that allows us, the American people, to live up to the promises we make our Active-Duty military when they come home with an injury--in this case, toxic exposure.

We have had toxic exposures--well, in World War I, it was mustard gas; radiation in World War II; and, of course, Agent Orange in the Vietnam war. We have had toxic exposures over and over and over again. In the Middle East, it is burn pits.

Over the last year and a half, we have had many hearings on this bill. In fact, we had a gentleman testify that he had a lung disorder. He was in tough shape. And, in fact, he passed away a few months ago.

The truth is, this is a bill that we need to pass. And we passed it already with 84 votes, and I think we had a couple of Senators gone or we would have had 86. It is a bill that is bipartisan in nature, and it is a bill that I think every Senator who votes for this bill can be proud that we are supporting the men and women who have felt the wounds of battle and are now trying to get their life back to normal.

But it is more than just the folks who served in our military; it is also their families. I would encourage all the Members of the body to support this bill.

It costs $27 billion a year, but it is a cost of war. If we are not willing to take care of our men and women when they come back from battles that we send them off to, then maybe we ought to rethink whether we are going to send them in the first place. This bill is a bill that was pushed by every veterans service organization out there. It was their No. 1 priority. We listened to the veterans, and we ended up with a piece of legislation that is very, very good.

If we are able to pass this out of the Senate again, this time it won't be going to the House. It will be going right to the President's desk, and we will have done right by our veterans in this country; we will have done right by the next generation of fighting men and women who will become veterans; and we will have had our veterans' backs along the way.

I yield the floor.

Cloture Motion

Mr. President, the good Senator from Pennsylvania is correct. I want to see this bill passed. I want to see this bill passed for all the reasons I have talked about many times in committee and on this floor.

This is about living up to the promises for our veterans. This is about making sure that when the veterans come back from exposures to burn pits or oil well fires or Agent Orange, that they don't have to go to the VA and fight for their healthcare and their benefits.

It impacts 3\1/2\ million veterans in this country. By the way, there will be a few more who die before we get this bill passed.

And I would also say that, as the Senator from Pennsylvania says, I am all for the $278.4 billion over 10 years on this bill; I have got no problem with that--well, the fact is, he does have a problem with that. The fact is, by doing what happened today on this floor, the real issue here--and make no mistake about it--is the money that is being spent to take care of our veterans.

And I have said it before, and I will say it again. If you have the guts to send somebody to war, then you better have the guts to take care of them when they get back home--or don't send them in the first place.

Now, let's talk about the $400 billion, OK, because, quite frankly, what this is about--this is about not even trusting the people in this body. We have an Appropriations Committee, and we vote on appropriations bills, and we set the levels in the accounts based off of appropriations. Let the process work. Let's not tie the hands of appropriators. Let's make sure we let the process work. That is what we have always done.

But the good Senator from Pennsylvania's amendment ties the hands of the appropriators. Make no mistake about this, the American people are sick and tired of the games that go on in this body. They are sick and tired of us working for Democrats or working for Republicans and not working for the American people. But this is bigger than that.

We have an All-Volunteer military in this country. If you don't think young people are watching what we are doing today who are thinking about signing up for the military, you are sadly mistaken. And when we don't take care of our veterans when they come home, they are going to say: Why should I ever sign on the dotted line because, of the promises that I made and the promises the country made, only half that deal is being respected--my half.

This is a sad day in the U.S. Senate. This is the biggest issue facing our veterans today. Make no mistake about it, if it wasn't, every veterans service organization wouldn't be out there talking to us and have been talking to me for the last 15 years.

So we can make up all sorts of excuses about how this is going to move money around, but--let me tell you something--we are the ones who decide that. If we want to move money around, we will; if we don't, we won't.

In the meantime, let's pass this bill. Let's give veterans the healthcare they have earned. If it isn't, it is political malpractice. What we are doing today with this policy, by putting this policy off, does nobody any good whatsoever.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am going to reiterate what I said before. The concern that the Senator from Pennsylvania has is a concern that there is not a lot of trust in this body, and I agree--fair reason to be.

As far as having rules, I believe in having rules, but I don't believe we should have rules that tie the hands of our standing committees, that say: You can't do this. Appropriations, I don't care what you see, what you see, what issue comes down the road for veterans--in this case, Martin Heinrich, the chair, and John Boozman, the ranking member--you guys can't address it.

That is what the Senator from Pennsylvania wants to do. That is not how this process should work. We should be dealing with issues as they arise. That is a fact.

And by the way, I have said for some time, programs that have outlived their lifespan, we should be cutting those programs, but we don't do that very well.

But we have been at war for 20 years. With that war--by the way, that was all put on a credit card--there was a fair amount that was funded by an OCO account. And now we are going to say: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no; we are not going to spend the money to take care of our veterans. I am going to use this as an excuse. I am going to use as an excuse the fact that the Appropriations Committee might spend too much money.

Well, that is on us. And while that is on us, we have veterans dying of cancers and lung conditions because a bill that should have been passed before the Fourth of July is still on the floor today.

You can frame it any way you want. But in the end, this budgetary gimmick is called: How the Congress Works. Appropriators appropriate. If you don't believe me, ask Senator Shelby. That is what we do. And if we appropriate too much, this body votes it down. Or if we don't appropriate enough, this body votes it down and amends it up. That is what appropriators do. That is how this process is supposed to work.

We should not be using that excuse to deny benefits to the men and women who have served this country in a God-awful place in the Middle East.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, look, now more than ever, the Department of Veterans Affairs needs a steady hand to guide the Veterans Health Administration. This is the Nation's largest integrated healthcare system, and its job is to deliver quality and timely care to our veterans.

I rise today because in about 15 minutes, we are going to vote on the confirmation of Dr. Shereef Elnahal to run the Veterans Health Administration. He has an impressive record of leading healthcare systems and health agencies. Most recently, Dr. Elnahal served as president and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, NJ, and, previous to that, New Jersey's 21st health commissioner. But more importantly than that, Dr. Elnahal is committed to caring for the more than 9 million veterans in VA's care--a commitment he carried out as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality, Safety, and Value at the Department.

It is no secret that VHA and healthcare systems and providers are going through a challenging time. The VA continues to battle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with veterans' cases and hospitalizations and deaths on the rise again. And VA staff are dealing with burnout and increased turnover.

In the past, this body has been able to rise above politics to install qualified individuals at the VA responsible for getting vets the healthcare and benefits they need today.

This is also very, very important because the VA is in the process of putting in an electronic health record. It is going to be transformational--not only for the VA, but once it is done, it is going to be transformational for the country, but we have to get it done in the VA first. There have been some challenges. We need somebody with a steady hand helping meet those challenges. Dr. Elnahal is that person.

Today, in about 12\1/2\ minutes, we need to act to confirm Dr. Elnahal as the VA's next Under Secretary for Health, and I would encourage everybody in this body to vote for him, get him in, hold him accountable, and make sure that we are living up to the promises we have made to our veterans for the healthcare they have earned.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I would ask that all time be yielded back and that we start the vote immediately on Dr. Elnahal.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak of a person who took his own life. It was either on Thursday or Friday of last week. It happens far too often.

This guy was an Army veteran. His name was Dave Belcher, and I had known Dave for 30 years. Dave worked at White Refrigeration as a salesman. I bought TVs from him in the early nineties. I bought the first front-loading washer from him and a refrigerator. He was just a great guy--just a great guy--but he had a challenge. His challenge was that he served his country, and because of that service to this country, he ended up with something that we talk about on this floor a lot. It is called post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. And because of that PTSD, Dave, not to my knowledge at the time when I first met him, but he was fighting demons, and he fought demons throughout his life. There were issues of depression and guilt that he just couldn't overcome and in the end, probably some paranoia involved, but he ended up taking his own life.

I think to myself, back when I first met Dave 30 years ago, how this guy was as normal as anybody you would ever meet. He is not somebody you would look at and say: You know, he has got a bunch of problems. He is not somebody who you could predict, 30 years after the fact, that he would have taken his own life, but that is what happened.

It happens far too often. In fact, it happens 22 times a day to our veterans in this country. This time, it happened to somebody whom I considered a friend--not somebody I saw a lot, but he is somebody who I knew had his struggles in the end. He went through veterans court. He was one of the first graduates of the veterans court and was somebody who did his best to try to get his life turned around, but it didn't happen. The demons got him.

I just wanted to come to the floor today to say: Dave, you and all your friends who have served this country have people in the Senate, people in Congress who fight for you every day.

For those folks who are watching this, who can relate to what I am saying, if you have an issue, please get ahold of somebody who can help you, like a mental healthcare professional out there, because mental health can be fixed. All you need to do is get the tools to be able to deal with it.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I would like to share a few words today to honor an outstanding leader and friend of mine who recently passed away. Eric Feaver was a force in Montana and a lifelong advocate for educators across our State. He was the former president of Montana's teacher's union who devoted more than 40 years to improving the State's public school system. His commitment to Montana's working

families was tangible and had a profound impact on public policy. It is safe to say the Treasure State wouldn't be what it is today without him.

As a fierce advocate for the labor movement, Eric was an inspiration to fellow labor leaders, politicians, teachers, students, and community members alike. It takes a lot these days to reach across party lines, but Eric consistently worked with those who held different views. Just ask some of the folks who worked with Eric. They will tell you, even though they didn't always agree with him, they respected him.

Raised in Oklahoma and sent to Vietnam as a conscientious objector and U.S. Army combat medic at the age of 23, Eric first planted roots in Montana when he landed a teaching job at Helena Junior High School in 1974. It didn't take long for Eric to find his way into the State's labor movement, where he would spend nearly 50 years helping shape education and union policy.

As a result of Eric's charisma and expertise, he was elected president of the Montana Education Association in 1984, and in 2000, he led MEA to a monumental merger with the Montana Federation of Teachers. As president of MEA-MFT, Eric spearheaded another major merger, which resulted in the creation of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, an organization that today represents more than 25,000 public sector employees. Over the years, Eric continued to bring together folks across Montana. And he managed to do a lot of good for the State's workforce and public schools in the process. But even more than his accomplishments, I think Eric will be remembered for his passion--his genuine commitment to making the Treasure State a better, fairer place to live and work.

I am lucky to have called Eric a friend. His legacy and his friendship have left a lasting imprint on me and so many others. I extend my deepest condolences to Eric's wife, Ellen; their two daughters, Amity and Ashley; two sons-in-law, Rich and TJ; grandchildren, Tristin, Cameron, Braden, Halo, Ethan, and Oliver; and his brothers, Douglas and Edward.

While Eric is no longer with us, he will go down in Montana history as one of the State's greatest labor leaders and champions of public education.

He will be sorely missed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 5134 to the title be considered and agreed to.

Mr. President, 1 week ago, this body passed Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our

PACT Act. We passed that bill with 84 votes in favor of it, something that rarely happens around here.

This bill was supported by the President; it was supported by the VA Secretary; and it was the No. 1 priority for nearly every major veterans advocacy group in the Nation. In fact, I cannot think of one that this wasn't the No. 1 priority for.

Upon passage, it was transmitted to the House, and they indicated that they would move it within days to the President's desk. Unfortunately, after Senate passage, the bill ran into a procedural hurdle, as bills often do around here, but tonight we have a chance to get back on track. We have a chance to get it to the House without further delay. And I might add, what this bill does is it takes care of a decades-long issue with toxic exposure.

The ranking member, Senator Moran, and I talked about this bill a week or two ago at length. This bill will help save veterans' lives who have been exposed to toxins and will help support their families after they passed. I would hope my colleagues will keep that in mind as they decide whether this is an appropriate time to play political games, to delay this bill's ability to become law, and obstruct for the sake of obstruction.

Everyone in this body knows that our veterans deserve more than that. They have waited long enough for the care and the benefits that are provided by this bill, and they shouldn't have to wait any longer because it did receive 84 votes in this body a week or so ago.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Secretary of the Senate be authorized to request the House of Representatives to return the papers on H.R. 3967; I further ask that notwithstanding the lack of receipt of the papers, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the Tester resolution that is at the desk to remove the blue-slip provision in the PACT Act; that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table without intervening action or debate.

Reserving the right to object. I don't know where to start.

First of all, this amendment does nothing to fix the blue-slip issue that was the real problem here. That was a de minimis amount of money anyway. Nonetheless, it is a blue-slip issue, and we have to fix it.

I would wholeheartedly disagree with my friend, the Senator from Pennsylvania, in saying that what you are actually doing is stopping benefits from veterans with this amendment. We are a body here in the U.S. Senate. If you want to talk about the appropriations process, we can talk about the appropriations process. But in the process of those debates, you shouldn't be denying healthcare to veterans, which is exactly what the good Senator from Pennsylvania is doing today. For that reason, I object.

Mr. President, I would like to share a few words today to honor an outstanding leader, veteran, and friend of mine who recently passed away.

Tony Incashola was the director of the Selis-Qlispe Culture Committee, where he spent 47 years preserving and perpetuating Salish and Pend d'Oreille culture, language, and history. In his 27 years as director of the committee, he earned the respect and trust of those he represented, so much so that members of the Selis-Qlispe Elders Cultural Advisory Council regarded him as the leader of the Tribe. Apart from his work on the Selis-Qlispe Culture Committee, Tony was a former Tribal councilman for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

In partnership with his fellow CSKT elder Johnny Arlee, Tony initiated the documentation and preservation of Salish language, stories, lessons, important place names, and songs, among other historical artifacts. Thanks to their work, the Selis-Qlispe Culture Committee has produced one of the most comprehensive and extensive tribal collections of oral history and culture in the Nation.

Tony's life's work was dedicated to passing Tribal knowledge onto future generations, which he accomplished not only through his record- keeping, but also through projects like the Nkwusm Salish School in Arlee, which teaches the Salish language and culture to kids from pre-K through 8th grade.

Tony's knowledge and leadership also had a profound impact on Tribal policy. As a member of the CSKT Tribal Council, he was instrumental in the effort to expand the Tribe's natural resource department and ultimately acquire ownership over the Salish Kootenai Dam. And as if his dedication to the Tribes wasn't enough, Tony was also a Vietnam vet, who served his country courageously in the U.S. Army. But to me, and to many others, Tony was all these things and more. He was a spiritual leader, a historian, a resource, and a friend.

I got to know him during my time in the Montana State Legislature, and he quickly became someone I deeply respected for his character, his wisdom, and his deep knowledge of the past.

But most of all, Tony was just a stand-up guy, a man who dedicated his life to others, whether that was his family, his Tribe, or even future generations of Tribal members he would never meet.

I extend my deepest sympathies to Tony's wife Denise; their children Daren, Brian, Brandy, and Tony, Jr.; foster children Destry Henderson and Marietta Meuli; ``special daughter'' Marlene Lafromboise; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and all the other folks who considered Tony family--and there were many.

Though he is no longer with us, Tony's presence will be felt for generations. Tony's memory will live on, just like the CSKT history he spent his life working to preserve.

Thank you, Tony, for all you gave to Montana. You will be sorely missed.

Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Moran for his comments. I didn't hear everything he had to say, but when I came in, one of the things he said was we may not be the most important people in this process. And he is 100 percent correct. We are simply the conduit that was utilized to get this bill put into law.

There are way, way too many people to thank on this legislation, and I am going to get to that. And I will forget a bunch of folks, and I apologize right now.

But the truth is, we today, the U.S. Senate today, has the opportunity to make history by passing the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics--PACT-- Act.

This is not a new issue. Generations after generations of Americans have gone to war backed by a promise that we made to them when they signed up that we would care for them when they got home. Unfortunately, that didn't happen in the case of toxic exposure. We failed them.

This bill is about righting a wrong that has been ignored for just way too damn long. It is about Will Thompson. It is about SFC Heath Robinson. It is about every American who has lost their lives through toxic exposures because of the duty that they have performed for this country.

Sadly, it is too late to do right by Will and Heath and so many others, but today, this body has a chance to do the right thing by their families and future generations of our All-Volunteer military by passing the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our PACT Act.

The days of ignoring the wounds from toxic exposure, wounds not seen until years after those days are gone--conditions like hypertension and MGUS found in veterans like Robert Hunter, a proud Montanan who served in the Army as an engineering officer during the Vietnam war. Robert was exposed to Agent Orange during his service and contracted MGUS years later. He is one of the 66,000 veterans in Montana who would become eligible for relief under this bill--not to mention every post- 9/11 veteran in this country who would automatically receive VA healthcare. This includes more than 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This bill would also remove the burden of proof for 23 presumptive conditions caused by military toxic exposures, from cancers to lung disease, and it would codify a more transparent framework to establish future presumptions of service connections to ensure future generations of veterans are treated more fairly than the last. And probably, most importantly, it will allow the VA to make the decisions on toxic exposures instead of an act of Congress.

In short, the PACT Act will allow hundreds of thousands of veterans across the country to access the VA care that they have been denied and give them the benefits that they have earned. Make no mistake, the VA will be given the tools it needs to hire more medical professionals and claims processors, establish more healthcare facilities and improve claims processing, ensuring we are meeting the needs of our veterans today, tomorrow, and in the future.

The bottom line is this country is very capable of recognizing the physical, obvious wounds of war--a lost limb, a chemical burn--and we are taking the steps to recognize the mental wounds of war, but we haven't been recognizing the toxic wounds of war, and that will end today with the passage of this bill.

As chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee--and I have said this many times to the veterans service organizations--I take my cues from them, the veterans they represent. When I first introduced the COST of War Act last year, together we set out with a clear goal, a goal to right the wrongs of decades of inactions and failure--by us, by our government--to provide all areas of toxic-exposed veterans the VA care and benefits they need and that they have earned.

We knew this was the only way to do this--was to put forth a package that took care of our past, present, and future veterans. I am grateful--and I mean this because folks always talk about good friends on the Senate floor. Sometimes, they mean it; sometimes, they don't. I mean it. Thank you to my good friend Ranking Member Jerry Moran for working with me, with the committee, for creating an environment so our staffs could work together to create this new, bipartisan toxic exposure strategy.

And for my colleagues on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, particularly my friends like Senator John Boozman and Senator Sherrod Brown, thank you.

I am thankful for the leadership of President Biden and VA Secretary Denis McDonough, along with House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Takano, and so many, many others who are here today.

This bill is the legislation we envisioned when we set out to right the wrongs of our toxic-exposed vets.

This bill recognizes the cost of war. It is the bill our veterans and our families deserve and are counting on and cannot wait any longer for. Veterans and veterans service organizations and advocates have understood this for a long time. And they have been incredible partners since the beginning, and I look forward to thanking each and every one of them in the days and the weeks to come.

I want to speak directly to them now: I am grateful for your efforts. I am grateful for your voices--for never taking your foot off the gas-- and continuing to push Members of Congress to simply do the right thing.

I also want to acknowledge the countless hours put in by the staffs from both sides of the aisle--and Senator Moran is exactly correct, we take credit for their good work; and they do good work--staff from my office, like staff director Tony McClain, as well as this guy right here to my left, Simon Coon, Dahlia Melendrez, James Cho, Janko Mitric, Tess Wrzesinski, Shauna Rust, Olya Voytovich, and Liz Timmons but also folks across the aisle, like Lindsay Dearing, Jon Towers, Asher Allman, Tom Brandt, Pat McGuigan, Michelle Dominguez, Dili Sundaramoorthy, and Mike Jones.

Look, by sitting down in a bipartisan way to get this bill crafted, we were able to have success and get the job done, and that is what the folks who sent us here expect us to do. America's veterans and their loved ones will be better off as a result of this work today, and the result of that will make this country a better place.

There is always a cost of war, and that cost is never fully repaid when the war ends. So I have got one question: Are we willing to show these millions of veterans that we have their back, that the U.S. Government has their back? Are we willing to admit that we didn't live up to the promise of veterans like Will Thompson and Heath Robinson?

But the fact is, I believe today will show that we can put party politics aside and honor America's bravest. We can honor the plea of Heath's 8-year-old daughter Brielle to ``Fight for the heroes who fought for our country and pass my dad's bill, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson PACT Act.'' And we can begin settling our debts to millions of other veterans and their families today.

The last thing is, what I am going to close with, that the work is not over with, assuming this bill passes today.

The ranking member is 100 percent correct: We are going to have a lot of oversight to do to make sure that the veterans get the healthcare and the benefits that they have earned and that they deserve. That is the congressional intent that we have with this bill. So oversight will be critically important.

I yield the floor.