Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2433, the Health Care for Veterans of Project 112/Project SHAD Act of 2003. From the year 1962 until 1973, the Department of Defense conducted various biological and chemical warfare tests, which involved several armed forces participants. These veterans were susceptible to the harmful effects of those biological and chemical agents, resulting in various illnesses that have been detrimental to their health and to their general welfare. The fact that these brave veterans have not been ensured essential medical services, hospital care, and nursing home care is a shameful one indeed.

Experimental warfare testing has had notoriously degenerative effects upon its participants. The consequences of Vietnam-era toxins, for example, are still being researched to better understand just how damaging the exposure has been. Another instance, Gulf War Syndrome, has been attributed to numerous military endeavors, such as petroleum- related hazards to the depleted uranium shells of the M1-A1 Abrams battle tank. These unintentional, unfortunate side effects of warfare must not go unheeded.

The noble service and duty of our proud veterans deserves gracious recognition and appropriate compensation on the part of the federal government. We cannot shun the treatment of unnecessary and preventable illnesses, nor can we rest idly while our nation's defenders succumb to such illnesses. There should be no requirement for proof of service- connection for the veterans who participated in the 1962 to 1973 testing. With their health care guaranteed by the federal government, we are rightly paying them back and providing the treatment that they need.

In addition, the VA medical workforce is in need of a significant improvement of healthcare facilities. Working against the VA are the fluctating staff levels of the medical staff who form the backbone of the facility workforce. Their weekend pay is also subject to confusing advantages and disadvantages, depending on one's position. Current standards of promoting nurses do not take into account experience, but rather favor those with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing Science. These issues further complicate and hamper the efforts of honest, hardworking healthcare employees to administer proper care and treatment to patients.

We must develop innovative methods of attracting medical personnel into the veterans' healthcare field, especially given the flight of skilled workers and patients to hospitals in the

private sector. Through fair labor negotiations between the VA and medical staffs, adequate staff levels and the means for the delivery of patient care can be properly outlined. Without sufficient communication and coordination on the parts of both the VA and its medical workers, everyone will ultimately suffer, and no one more than our veterans. The physical and emotional well being of our veterans should not be marginalized and this legislation is one step towards ensuring that they receive the proper high-quality care that they deserve.

Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No. 470 had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Amendment No. 4 Offered by Mr. Hastings of Florida

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I will not take the full 5 minutes, and I understand that the

gentleman from New York (Chairman Walsh) may be willing to accept the amendment. So I would like to yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) for a clarification.

I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, this amendment targets the long waiting periods faced by our armed service veterans. Many of those are World War II veterans who are trying to access for the first time in their lives the VA system itself. Many of those are trying to access the VA pharmacies in order to get prescription drugs. We have 160,000 veterans who have been on the waiting list for over 6 months. This is an opportunity with this amendment to address that problem.

In addition to our World War II veterans, I do want to say several weeks ago I returned from Iraq visiting our veterans in Baghdad, armed service people in Baghdad and Kerkook. I visited the 804th Military Battalion in Camp Wolf over in Kuwait. We have every reason to be proud of the men and women of our armed services and the job they are doing in the Mideast.

I would like to thank the gentleman from New York (Chairman Walsh) and also the ranking member, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan), for their great leadership on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it has been about a year since this Congress voted to give the President fast track authority, and now we are seeing the first fruits of that effort, and I must say that for the democratic process and for our constitutional government and for the American workers, this is bitter fruit indeed.

It is sadly ironic that a half a world away we have about a quarter of a million American sons and daughters who are fighting and dying every day to remove a hostile regime both in Iraq and in Afghanistan with the hope and the purpose of bringing democratic rights, individual rights, human rights to the people in those countries. Yet here we are today with an agreement in which the U.S. Trade Representative has the ability to serve the same purpose with the stroke of a pen, and yet the U.S. Trade Representative has chosen not to do that. We have fumbled an opportunity to strike a blow for democracy in these agreements.

We should remember that our trade policy is an essential tool of democracy, and arguably the United States Trade Representative could have accomplished much on our behalf in these agreements, and I think Congress needs to get back into the process.

I think it is instructive that these agreements are very specific, very meaningful, very clearly defined when parties or countries violate the commercial terms of this agreement. However, when labor protections are denied and human rights are denied, the agreements are either silent or vague and unenforceable.

One would think that an administration that has ridden herd on the worst job creation performance of any President in this country since Herbert Hoover, one would think that that President would be reluctant to bring in tens of thousands of foreign workers into this country. One would think that with the jobs lost, 1.3 million jobs lost in the past 2 years, that this administration would be hesitant about adopting this type of agreement.

It is shameful indeed that this administration has not, and I ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on both the Chile and Singapore trade agreements.

Offered By: Mr. Lynch

Amendment No. 8: To insert after final bill section: