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Taking care of veterans means getting justice for Camp Lejeune
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
May 17, 2022
The Hill
In 1986, Audrey Williams Pride laid her infant son to rest. She blamed herself for his death—but it was actually the government’s fault. The authorities at Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina Marine Corps base Audrey called home, had contaminated the drinking water….
From 1953 to 1987, more than a million men, women, and children bathed in and ingested Camp Lejeune’s toxic water. Hundreds of babies died,…[and t]ens of thousands of Marines, military family members, and civilian staff have since developed severe illnesses, from cancer to Parkinson’s, linked to the contamination.
For years, government officials covered up their crime. Then, when the truth came out, they relied on legal loopholes to escape the consequences…. Fortunately, change is just over the horizon…. [T]he Camp Lejeune Justice Act…was introduced by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to help victims of water contamination at Camp Lejeune work around North Carolina’s statute of repose and take their cases to court. Sen. Tillis has the solution—now we just need to implement it….
Some members of Congress worry that allowing sick veterans and their families to seek restitution for Camp Lejeune will take too much money away from the federal budget. To those members, I say this problem was created by the government, and the government must solve it…. Other members assert committee jurisdictional reasons to argue that Camp Lejeune cannot be included in the PACT Act. To those members, I say committee jurisdiction shouldn’t stand in the way of helping Americans suffering from toxic exposure….
Until we get justice for Camp Lejeune, its former residents…will be a living witness to government negligence and incompetence. I call on my colleagues in Congress to do the right thing and pass the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.