Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer an amendment that will facilitate health screenings in communities coping with groundwater contamination from nearby defense installations. My amendment dedicates $7 million in the operations and maintenance defense-wide account to screenings for residents who, unbeknownst to them, have fallen victim to exposure to firefighting chemicals which have bled into the drinking water.

One of those sites where this has happened for over a couple of decades is in my district, a district I share with the gentleman from Philadelphia, Mr. Brendan F. Boyle, the Navy Air Station in Montgomery County, and Mr. Fitzpatrick of Bucks County in Warminster.

The Navy has been working very closely with the EPA and the public water authorities to take wells off line to address contamination and to provide public drinking water. But one of the things that they have not done is levels of screening to determine whether there has been any impact associated with the presence of what we call PFOAs, something the EPA has determined levels at which it may create a potential risk.

Make no mistake about it, the Federal Government is responsible for this. That will not be an issue which will be contested. So the question is whether there is precedent for the ability to work on something like this, allowing the Navy. And the answer is, yes, this has happened. Private entities in both Hoosick, New York, and West Virginia have worked through State authorities to enable there to be testing of thousands of local residents in situations like this to determine whether or not there could have been any local impact due to that.

So we are not asking the Defense Department to put any kind of man hours into this. We are asking them to work with what we believe are appropriate authorities that already exist, and for them to work in public-private partnerships with State entities to enable and facilitate some of this testing to take place.

I think the Navy deserves credit for being proactive in the way they have looked at this issue. But we see this as a continuing obligation and would like to see the Navy fulfill the support to enable this important, important testing to take place.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Frelinghuysen for putting important language in the appropriations bill that includes report language requiring the Pentagon to report on what sites pose a potential health risk and its plan to address them. I am very thankful to my friend, Representative Brendan F. Boyle from Philadelphia, who has worked closely with me on this issue. But I also understand, Mr. Chairman, that the chairman of the committee has some observations on this.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MEEHAN. I thank the chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Mr. Brendan F. Boyle).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to thank the gentleman and the chairman and the ranking member for their recognition of the issue and their willingness to work with Mr. Boyle and Mr. Fitzpatrick in Bucks County, who is similarly situated, and myself. I look forward to working with both of those gentlemen and the committee on this issue.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source