Lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a registry of military families experiencing cancers and other illnesses they think may be tied to base water contamination.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced the “PFAS Registry Act” in April.
The legislation would “create a national database for service members and veterans experiencing health problems possibly due to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, (PFAS)” the senators wrote.
In April, Military Times reported that the Pentagon had released a study on all the bases that have water sources that tested positive for higher than recommended levels of PFOS and PFOA — compounds tied to cancers and birth defects.
PFAS is the larger family of chemicals that includes PFOS and PFOA, compounds that “have emerged as a widespread contaminant to the drinking water sources of military bases across the country due to their use in firefighting foam used by the armed services,” the senators wrote.
Separately, Shaheen secured $7 million in the 2018 federal budget agreement signed in March for a nationwide study of the long-term health affects of PFOS and PFOA on military bases and their surrounding communities.

Thune, Rounds Urge USDA to Provide Timely Drought Assistance, Open CRP.
Extreme drought conditions throughout the Northern Plains have led to a shortage of hay and pasture WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens.
John Thune (R-S.D.)
today urged U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary (USDA) Sonny Perdue to provide timely assistance to counties currently facing extreme drought conditions, and if drought conditions worsen, as expected, to be ready to provide expedited assistance to counties that will likely soon be in extreme drought conditions and eligible for assistance from the Livestock Forage Program (LFP).
In their letter to Perdue, Thune and Rounds also requested that Conservation Reserve Program acres be made available for emergency haying and grazing as soon as possible due to the substantial loss of grazing and forage for feed.
“Timely assistance is needed in order to preserve foundation grazing livestock herds in the drought-stricken areas of our state from further downsizing due to lack of feed and forage …
“In addition, we request that as counties are triggered for emergency haying and grazing of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, that you make as many of the 977,555 CRP-enrolled acres in South Dakota available for haying and grazing due to the already realized substantial loss of grazing and forage for feed as soon as reasonably possible.” Counties are determined eligible for immediate assistance under the LFP as soon as any part of a county is at a D3 (extreme drought) category rating by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Several counties in South Dakota are currently rated D2 and are expected to be rated D3 in the near future.
More than 484,000 CRP-enrolled acres in South Dakota are considered “environmentally sensitive” by USDA, which does not normally allow these acres to be hayed or grazed under emergency conditions.
Thune and Rounds are requesting that the environmentally sensitive acres be opened for haying and grazing, as they were in 2012, and that haying and grazing be allowed in eligible counties beginning no later than July 15.