Barbara Barrett
McClatchy Newspapers
December 23, 2010
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Burr this week quietly blocked a massive defense authorization bill after he discovered that someone had inserted 38 words into a bill that Burr feared would hurt victims of water contamination at Marines Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
It worked.
Burr and his fellow North Carolina senator, Democrat Kay Hagan, took on the defense authorization bill after they discovered that an amendment they’d written that prohibited the Navy from making decisions about health claims related to the Lejeune water contamination issue had been rewritten. The rewritten amendment would have let the Navy act after it had given a 45-day notice.
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The senators and other advocates had wanted no decisions made until federal scientists finished a host of studies that, many believe, will connect the contamination to a variety of cancers and other illnesses. They feared quick decisions would allow the Navy to make decisions that wouldn’t fully compensate victims.
