Washington—Following a CBS News investigative report that aired last night on the actions of a private contractor KBR in Iraq, Senator Evan Bayh redoubled his commitment to establish a medical registry modeled after our government’s response to Agent Orange, so U.S. military personnel exposed to toxic chemicals during wartime service are given “priority status” care at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities.

Bayh’s announcement to reintroduce his legislation as soon as Congress reconvenes in January comes a day after CBS aired an investigative report raising new questions about whether the private contractor KBR took timely action to prevent members of the Indiana National Guard from being exposed to hexavalent chromium, a lethal carcinogen, at the Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Plant in Iraq in 2003.

The CBS report can be seen here.

Bayh was briefed yesterday by the Army on its response to the incident. The Army expressed “low” to “medium” confidence in its own environmental testing at Qarmat Ali, which was conducted after the private contractor had remediated—or scrubbed clean— the site. It is uncertain how long KBR knew of the potential health threat before notifying U.S. military leadership.

“I think the burden of proof at this point is on the company,” Bayh said, “to come forward and very forthrightly explain what happened, why we should trust them, and why the health and well-being of our soldiers should continue to be in their hands.

“We need to ensure that the right decisions are being made for our soldiers, not on the basis of dollars and cents, but on protecting their health,” he added.

The Bayh legislation would establish a registry that aggressively tracks soldiers exposed to industrial toxins during wartime service, guaranteeing them access to priority status care at VA facilities. It would also authorize a scientific review of the evidence linking exposure to adverse health effects. There have been at least seven reported cases of possible exposure at contaminated industrial sites, including Qarmat Ali.

“Our government has a responsibility to remove needless obstacles to care for soldiers exposed to potentially lethal quantities of toxic chemicals in service of their country,” Senator Bayh said. “We should be guided by our government’s response to Agent Orange in Vietnam, when we changed our VA claims system so veterans placed at risk did not bear the burden of proof if health conditions developed later in life.”

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