Veterans Committee’s Republican Chairman Supports, Pledges Action on McCaskill’s Arla Harrell Act : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Veterans Committee’s Republican Chairman Supports, Pledges Action on McCaskill’s Arla Harrell Act / Senator McCaskill
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | The Republican Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee today pledged action on U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s Arla Harrell Act, which would help reverse seven decades of mistreatment and bureaucratic indifference by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs toward servicemen who were intentionally exposed to chemical weapons during World War II. “One of these service members is a constituent of mine, Arla Harrell, who is very ill—he’s 90 years old … Arla was twice subjected to the extreme form of full body exposure to mustard gas while stationed at Camp Crowder in Neosho, Missouri for basic training in 1945,” testified McCaskill, the daughter of a World War II veteran and senior member of the Armed Services Committee. “…To give you an example of just how broken the current process is, the VA rejected Arla’s claim on the basis that, due to a lack of proper record keeping, it can’t confirm mustard gas testing ever occurred at Camp Crowder. Arla’s personal statements and medical records notwithstanding—in other words they called him a liar, … we have able to prove that mustard gas was used at Camp Crowder, through reports published by the Army Corps of Engineers.” Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, the Committee Chairman, pledged his support for McCaskill’s bill and said in introducing McCaskill: “I wanted to thank her for the hard work she’s done on the issue of mustard gas and the Arla Harrell Act, which she’s worked so hard on and I’ve committed for a long time to help her with.” The Committee’s top-ranking Democrat, Senator Jon Tester of Montana, also pledged his support and said, “I too want to thank Claire for being here today, I know she’s worked very, very hard on this issue and I’ll make a commitment to you to do our level best to get this thing to the floor as soon as we can because it’s important.” Following McCaskill’s testimony, Isakson responded, “Thank you Senator McCaskill, and your tenacity will be noted—you’ve done a great job of pushing on this bill for a very long period of time. The committee will have a vote on it, not today, but in the weeks ahead.” In her testimony, McCaskill highlighted that while she continues to address staff-level challenges at the VA, President Trump’s new Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has shared with McCaskill his personal support for the legislation. An investigative report by McCaskill last year demonstrated that during World War II, thousands of U.S. servicemen were exposed to mustard agents through secret U.S. military experiments. By the end of the war, 60,000 servicemen had been human subjects in the U.S. military’s chemical defense research program, with an estimated 4,000 of them receiving high levels of exposure to mustard agents. For decades, these servicemen were under explicit orders not to discuss their toxic exposure with their doctors or even their families. The U.S. military did not fully acknowledge its role in the mustard agent testing program until the last of the experiments was declassified in 1975. The military did not lift the oath of secrecy for the servicemen until the early 1990s. The VA has denied more than 90 percent of mustard gas claims in the last ten years and only 40 veterans are currently receiving any benefit due to their exposure. Despite these statistics, the VA has repeatedly stated that their process has led to “fair and equitable” outcomes for those who have applied. McCaskill’s legislation, which is also supported fellow Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and has gained a bipartisan companion bill in the U.S. House, is supported by: Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Military Officers Association of America, American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. |
| 撮影日 | 2017-06-15 11:22:11 |
| 撮影者 | Senator McCaskill |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | Canon EOS REBEL T5 , Canon |
| 露出 | 0.008 sec (1/125) |
| 開放F値 | f/4.5 |
| 焦点距離 | 125 mm |