The draft bill for the Fort McClellan
Veterans Equity Act will be on carryover
to the next legislative session of
Congress starting in January of 2009.

In spite of a last ditch effort to
get some momentum on it at the end
of this session in September, there
were just too many things setting
up roadblocks to get it all done.
We simply ran out of time.
An Alabama congressional has requested
that one of the members of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee sponsor
the bill on his behalf and that information
was taken back to the Committee. This
will be our starting point in January
and I will be there the week that the
session begins.

Alabama congressionals are involved
in the talks and information sharing
and in January, the same effort will
be expanded to the Senate as well.

There was a short list of roadblocks
that slowed things down for us, one
of the biggest was in August the 11th
hour decision to move the issue from
the DAMA subcommittee to the Health
Subcommittee. The Director was in Iraq
and not really available to us until
into September.

Rotation of a young college staff is
another problem. We lost 4 different
staffers who were all meeting, talking,
or working on our behalf who then
up and quit their jobs without telling
anybody and that was a major delay
factor and halted some of the progress
we were making. It was stop and then
start all over again from Base 1 with
new replacement staffers, and perhaps
by January, there will be yet even more
new staffers. The average age of most
congressional staffers are 21 to 25
and these are all school types who
are in between graduate options. The
jobs on the Hill are really not of
the "career" variety and the revolving
doors of staffers are just overwhelming
at times. It's nearly impossible to
have a single issue heard across several
different offices because the young
people are so unstable.

Talks and updating on information will
continue between me and the current
staffers throughout the adjournment
period leading up to January. But until
the new session there will be no
actual movement on the Bill.

In the meantime, I am about to leave
for a 3 day trip to the Fort McClellan
base for a company reunion, and will
be driving around the area to compile
photos and archives information on
the region to bring back to Washington
to facilitate the Bill approval when
they resume their committee dockets.

There has been an incompetent, misguided,
and totally wrong letter invoking VA
opposition to the Fort McClellan Bill
issued from Patrick Dunne, the new
VA Undersecretary for No-Benefits but
that has also been moved around Capitol
Hill for staffers to enter into the
record. Dunne has claimed that the
Army has done an "investigation" on
the Fort McClellan matter and concluded
that no Veterans were exposed to anything.
But when pressed to reveal that DOD
report, Dunne so far has had no reply
at all.

Our read on it right now is that
no such DOD investigation ever took
place, and if it did, it failed to
make any discussion whatsoever on
the AIR side of the contamination.
This is a common mistake that even
EPA and CDC makes to this day and
it all comes from BlowHard Central
and everybody trying to be the big
Know It All for the Fort McClellan
region.

Not any of them were stationed there
but yup, they are the Big Bubba experts
on the whole thing !!

Not to be derailed in spite of their
dumb and ineffective selves, I will
be back on The Hill in January to
resume the legislative effort.

People who wish to enter their Vet
support for the draft of the Fort
McClellan Veterans legislation
can send a short fax of support
with your name, address, and the
name of your own congressman to
the main fax number posted at the
House Veterans Affairs Committee
at 202-225-2034. Be sure to identify
yourself as a Veteran and simply
say you are a supporter of the bill
and ask that they pass it in the next
session. Send it to the Attention of
the DAMA Subcommittee.

We are receiving help from one Senate
office on the Senate side of the Hill
and we are hoping to leverage that further
at the start of the new session.