U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan is demanding that the Department of the Navy correct a brochure it sent to former Camp Lejeune residents across the country last summer about historic water contamination at the Marines base.
She also wants the Navy to coordinate any public releases on the contamination with federal scientists at the Agency on Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control that is studying the health effects of the contamination.
Both provisions are included in language as part of the 2012 Department of Defense authorization bill, which was expected to pass out of the Armed Services Committee late Thursday.
The authorization bill next goes to the full Senate. Both Hagan and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, have included contamination-related provisions in the past. Burr no longer serves on the committee.
But Hagan remains on Armed Services, and her office said she worked this week to get the provisions in the bill.
One involves a brochure sent to former Lejeune residents and members of Congress last summer. It refers to a National Academy of Sciences study that found no solid link between the water and a host of cancers and other illnesses that veterans and their family members say they suffer. But that report didn't assess one of the most toxic poisons, benzene, that was found in the water. Benzene is known to cause cancer.
Under Hagan's language, the Navy would have to retract the brochure and send a corrective letter to people who have registered on a Marines website that focuses on the contamination.
Other provisions would forbid the Navy from spending money to adjudicate claims about the water until ATSDR scientists finish several health studies on the water's impact.
The bill also would require theNavy and ATSDR to report to the committee if they have disputes that can't be resolved within 60 days.
Well water at the base was contaminated from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s with benzene, vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene.
Nominee advances
The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday recommended Charlotte attorney Thomas Walker as the next U.S. attorney for North Carolina's Eastern District. He was reported out by voice vote.
Walker would replace George Holding, a Bush appointee who announced his resignation last week after the indictment of John Edwards.
Walker now goes to the full Senate for an up or down confirmation vote, but it's unclear when that will happen. Many of President Barack Obama's nominees have been caught in the partisan tussle in the Senate.
Walker was supported by North Carolina's senators, Kay Hagan and Richard Burr.
Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat who forwarded Walker's name to Obama, called him "one of the outstanding legal minds."
"I look forward to working with Senator Burr to advance Mr. Walker's nomination in the Senate, and with all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see that he is swiftly confirmed," she said in a statement.
Abortion veto urged
Planned Parenthood is calling on Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue to veto the abortion-limiting legislation headed to her desk after being passed by the Senate late Wednesday.
"Everything reasonable in this legislation is already required for physicians providing abortion care," said Melissa Reed, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, in a statement. "Arbitrary waiting periods for women seeking health care and state-directed counseling intended to guilt women are not law nor should they ever be law in our state."
The Woman's Right to Know Act requires women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion within which time they must view an ultrasound or listen to the heartbeat of the fetus and be given printed information about the risks that may be associated with the procedure.
In addition, the legislation mandates counseling for women seeking an abortion with no exceptions for rape victims or in cases where a pregnancy is compromised.
Paige Johnson, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, said in a statement that her group is "confident Governor Perdue will veto this bill." Democrats in the legislature also expect the governor to veto the bill.
