Good morning.

My name is Ed Flynn, Boston City Council.

I am the Vice Chair of the Boston City Council Committee and Veterans, Military Families, Military Affairs.

Today is August 28th, 2026.

The exact time is 10 o'clock.

This hearing is being recorded.

It is also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity, Channel 8, RCM, Channel 82, FIOS, Channel 964.

Written comments may be sent to the committee.

Email at CCC.

That's at Boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all city councilors.

Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing, or if anyone wouldn't like to testify virtually, we'll try to get you in during during the hearing.

If you have any scheduling related issues and you need to testify immediately, please let me know and I'll try to get you in to testify as we speak.

Individuals will be called on in the order in which they sign up and they'll have two minutes to testify.

Please take the time that you need.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the city council chamber.

If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our city council central staff liaison, Shane Pack at Shane SHANE.gov for the link, and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on actually two dockets, docket 0273.

It's an order for a hearing to discuss lung cancer rates among black veterans.

And the second docket is Docket 0274, which is an order for a hearing to discuss services for women veterans.

Docket 0273 was sponsored by myself, Councilor Councilor Murphy and Councillor Santana.

And it was referred to the committee on February 4th, 2026.

Well, I do want to acknowledge as the vice chair, I will be chairing this hearing today in Councillor Henry Santiana does express his respect for the veterans that are here and the veterans throughout the city of Boston.

He's just unable to be here, but he wanted me to know that he is paying a close attention to this and want to acknowledge his chief of staff, Anna Calderon, who really helped set up this meeting as well.

So I want to say thank you to Anna for her support and commitment to veterans, military families across the city of Boston as well.

And then I'm going to give an opportunity for my council colleague, Councillor Murphy, to give an opening statement, and then I and then I want to ask each panelist to give an opening statement as well.

But before we do that, could I just ask the panel maybe to go go starting from Commissioner Santiago?

Could you just um state your name for the record and what organization you you are with?

So let me start with that Commissioner Santiago, please.

Thank you very much for having me.

I am Commissioner Robert Santiago, City of Boston of Veterans Services.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Good morning, Councillor Flynn, Councillor Murphy.

My name is Craig Di Old, President of the City of Boston, and I am the state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

I'm with the Boston Public Health Commission.

Good morning.

My name is Malika Whitley.

I'm with the American Legion Pull 78, and I also work with VA Benefits.

And good is this on?

Yes, it is.

Okay.

Good morning, uh Councillor Flynn and Councillor Murphy.

My name is Renda Wiener.

I am a pulmonary physician and researcher at the VA Boston Health Care System and the Center for Health Optimization and Implementation Research there.

Thank you to this distinguished panel for being here.

Thank you for testifying.

More importantly, thank you for your commitment to veterans in military families across the city, really across the country as well.

I'm going to read a letter into the record, then I'm going to go to straight to Council Murphy.

Dear Chair Santana, this is from City Council, City Council President Braden.

I regret that I am unable to attend to tomorrow's hearing on Docker 0273 0274 hearing to discuss lung cancer rates among black veterans, services for women veterans.

Well I am unable to attend the hearing.

Members of my team will be listening in to this critically important discussion, and I plan to review the recording.

Thank you, Elizabeth Braden, City Council President.

We are also joined by City Councillor at Large Large Rootsie Louis Gen.

Let me go to Councillor Murphy for an opening statement.

Thank you, Council Flynn.

And thank you to the panelists.

Thank you, Commissioner Santiago, for all you do here at the city and obviously across the state and country, always showing up for veterans as a veteran yourself.

And I mean, I don't want to take all my time just thanking people for being here.

But Craig, also in coming from like the VA and the different posts across the city, we know that many veterans, when they come to those places, it's not just for socialization, even though that's a wonderful thing, it's also to connect and help connect to the benefits that we know the veterans earned, and in many times aren't always aware of what's out there for them.

And when we have subgroups like this, I think it's very important that we're talking about and thank you for uplifting these concerns about the lung cancer rates among our black veterans and making sure our women veterans are getting everything they need while they're enlisted, but also when they come home, making sure that they're supported.