Torpedoing the Navy Veterans Agent Orange Bill

H.R 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018, was passed by the U.S. House unanimously, 382 to 0, and went to the Senate on June 25. But a week ago, in an article from Tom Philpott in Stars and Stripes, we learned that as many as four senators had placed a hold on the bill that President Trump has already agreed to sign, and that the bill was in jeopardy of failure, after seven years of legislative work by the non-profit, Military Veterans Advocacy, Inc. (MVA). Senators Paul Rand (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) either had concerns about the veracity of the science or costs associated with the bill after years of research, gathering of eye-witness affidavits, Capitol Hill political wrangling, and several years of attempted passage of the bill, not to mention an estimated 20,000 deaths of the approximately 90,000 U.S. Navy Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.  Torpedoing the Navy Veterans Agent Orange Bill