 Good morning, and thank you for tuning in for an important discussion today. I'm Elizabeth de Pompey with DAV, and I'm joined by Marine Corps veteran and DAV Deputy National Legislative Director, Shane Learman. Some of you may recognize Shane, good morning, from his work on the PACT Act, the most comprehensive toxic exposure legislation in history that was signed into law last year. The sweeping measure was a huge win for many toxic exposed veterans, but not all. More specifically, the law does not recognize or cover a slew of dangerous exposures at Kar-Shikhanabad Air Base, also known as K-2 in Uzbekistan. As many as 15,000 U.S. service members deployed to K-2 between 2001 and 2005 to support military operations into Northern Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks on 9-11. The former Soviet air base contained residuals of chemical weapons, radioactive depleted uranium, jet fuel, and cyanide, among hundreds of other chemical compounds. A 2015 U.S. Army study found that K-2 veterans have a 500 percent greater chance of developing certain cancers. Many of those veterans also report a long list of unexplained illnesses. Still, the Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize most K-2 exposures, forcing many K-2 veterans to fight for the life-changing health care and benefits they were promised. Shane, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. So you are quite familiar with toxic exposures, especially with all of your work on the Pact Act in this past year. When you think of toxic exposures at K-2, what stands out in particular to you? I think it's the toxicity or the very specific toxins that were there. We're talking about depleted uranium, enriched uranium. We're talking about cyanide in the showers, petroleum in the ground, in the water, in the soil, to where there were even signs at the location notifying those who were there that they were at a biohazard area. That stands out to me because as we look at a lot of the other toxic exposures for veterans throughout history, nothing was really this blatant and obvious they were in the middle of toxic exposures. What kind of things have you heard or seen in terms of how veterans that served at K-2 were impacted? I mean, how were their lives and families impacted? Well, we're seeing a variety of cancers that are impacting them, as well as some other conditions that aren't cancers that are hard to relate. Everything from blood infections, blood disorders, to neurological conditions, and it really is a lot of immunosuppressive problems that they're having as well. We're seeing a variety of conditions other than just cancers. I mentioned the PACT Act. Tell us what the PACT Act does for K-2 veterans and then maybe more importantly, what doesn't it do for K-2 veterans? Oh, absolutely. The PACT Act includes veterans who were in Uzbekistan as being considered exposed to airborne hazards, most importantly, burn pits. There is a list of essentially many different cancers that can be related and approximately three respiratory conditions that can be related to burn pit exposure. However, the PACT Act does not recognize the specific toxins we just talked about that were at K-2, nor does it actually relate any diseases other than cancers to those specific exposures at K-2. While the PACT Act does provide eligibility for healthcare based on burn pit exposure for those who are in Uzbekistan, what it doesn't do is provide specific exposure recognition and diseases related just to K-2. We're seeing K-2 toxic exposures as part of DAV's critical policy goals for 2023. Tell us what the ultimate goal is and how can we get there? Well the goal is to get VA to recognize those toxins we just talked about that are separate from the PACT Act and burn pits. We want VA to concede those toxins were there. There was like 400 different chemical compounds also found there. We want VA to recognize, yes, if you were at Uzbekistan, K-2, during this period, here is what you were specifically exposed to. So that goes a long way in trying to establish what's referred to as presumptive diseases. A list of diseases related specific to that exposure. So what we want is VA to one, recognize those exposures specifically and two, develop those presumptive diseases related specific to those exposures. So completely different from burn pits, but based solely on those. VA can do it, the Secretary of the VA has the authority to do those things and create those recognitions of exposures and add diseases. However, we're also asking Congress, so if we can't get the VA to do it, then we're looking at legislative fixes through Congress to get those established. And what would this ultimately mean for K-2 veterans? If we get these exposures recognized in the presumptive diseases established, what does that mean for them? Well, it means it will have access to benefits specifically related to that exposure, and in many instances also healthcare. While the PACT Act does open up healthcare for those who are exposed in certain areas to include Uzbekistan based on burn pit exposure, as well as also extending a veteran who served in combat now has 10-year window to get access for eligibility from VHA for healthcare. However, there are veterans who are still not eligible who served at Uzbekistan. This would also help get them that eligibility for VA healthcare that they so desperately need. I want to take a minute to point viewers to a story DAV recently published that shows the human toll of this issue. So in that story, you'll meet two K-2 veterans who are still dealing with the consequences of toxic exposure, and one spouse whose husband served at K-2 and sadly died due to health complications just weeks before the birth of their first daughter. You can find the link to that story in this post and at DAV.org, as well as in the January-February issue of DAV magazine. Shane, I know you're working hard. We're working hard to get K-2 legislation introduced to Congress. What can DAV members and others do in the meantime to help champion this issue? Well, I think the more people that are involved is always better. DAV has DAV's Commander's Action Network, or DAV CAN, and you can sign up for that at DAVCAN.org. And what that'll do is that'll let you know when DAV's legislative team is supporting and calling for support on very, very specific pieces of legislation. So that is a great way to get your voice heard because you can directly communicate with your members of the House and the Senate. We've been doing this for many, many years, and over the last two years, we've had almost one million emails sent through the Commander's Action Network from our members. This is a great way to get vocal, to be engaged, and to be alerted when this legislation does get introduced. And then for our members, we have a midwinter conference coming up. Is there anything that they can do while they're there to help educate themselves or to help spread the word about this? DAV's Critical Policy Goals for 2023 really lists out our issues for toxic exposures and addressing these gaps in exposure specific for K-2 veterans. So we have a better explanation of those in those documents that can be found on DAV.org, as well as preparing for these. We're going to have a seminar at midwinter conference where we're going to go through these Critical Policy Goals, explain this, and help prepare our members for when they do go on the Hill during that week to sit down and talk with their members of Congress one-on-one. That's great. And then for those veterans who served at K-2 who believe they have a claim that they had illnesses related to toxic exposure, what should they do right now? I think if you believe you have a condition related to that K-2 exposure, you should file the claim now. My best advice is to have somebody assist you doing it. And if you want assistance, there are many DSOs that provide free assistance. And to get that from DAV, go to benefitsquestion.org and you can get more information, get in touch with the DAV service office in your area. I believe that if you have something, take action now. Don't wait. Don't wait for them to add any new presumptives or any new laws or regulations because here's the thing. If you get these things established now, you can always get it done on a direct service-connected basis. Plus, there is also the potential of getting it established as soon as possible for when something does become into law, there could be an earlier effective date as a possibility. So if you believe you have something, take action now. Shane, is there anything else that you would like to add that you think folks should be aware of when we're talking about K-2? I think the most important thing to remember is the PACT Act doesn't cover everything. What we've already heard from members of Congress that we've talked about when we bring this issue of K-2 up, like, oh, well, we took care of that during the PACT Act, no we didn't. We can get this established. We need everybody to raise their voice to help these men and women who were exposed during K-2 to get what they're entitled to, their earned benefits, especially when we're knowing what these type of chemicals are and the negative impact they're going to have on their long-term health. This is a fight for everybody, not just for those who were exposed, not just for veterans. Everybody needs to get involved because the louder our voices, the more we can get accomplished, and we have proved that many, many times over the last few years. Shane, thank you so much again for joining us. Thank you all for watching. You can find DAB on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course, at DAB.org. And I want to point you again to that magazine story where you can really hear the human stories and see, unfortunately, the devastating consequences of toxic exposure. Thank you again.