Have McHugh explain votes on military bills

Congressman John McHugh has been nominated as secretary of the Army. I pray he will be able to explain some decisions he's made. On my desk is a Congressional Record printout showing HR202 was referred to Chairman McHugh's Military Personnel Subcommittee in January 2005, where it apparently died.

That bill would have provided for health testing of our troops for depleted uranium (the new Agent Orange), the suspected culprit in 11,000 Desert Storm veterans' deaths and 100,000 permanently disabled. Another bill, HR 2410, in June 2005 would have cleaned up domestic depleted uranium test sites, which may include Fort Drum firing ranges. Both were never heard from after reaching Mr. McHugh's subcommittee, according to the Congressional Record printout.

In 2008, Mr. McHugh seemingly downplayed to the Times as "a handwritten document in a drawer from one team"what National Public Radio printed as an official Veterans Affairs memo, a VA complaint that Fort Drum Army brass tried to stop the VA from helping wounded troops with their disability paperwork. This also sits on my desk. Mr. McHugh's pooh-poohing the VA memo is especially troubling as it also described horrific conditions in a Fort Drum medical barracks (a bedridden patient denied meals for three days, etc.).

Concerned citizens, fellow veterans and military families might ask Congress to have Mr. McHugh explain the above before putting him in charge of our troops' welfare.

Roland Van Deusen

Clayton