[CPEO-MEF] HERBICIDES, VETERANS: "VA officials push back on Congress’ blue water Navy benefits fix"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

VA officials push back on Congress’ blue water Navy benefits fix

By Leo Shane III
Military Times
August 7, 2018

WASHINGTON - Veterans Affairs officials strongly opposed legislative plans to extend disability payouts to roughly 90,000 veterans who claim exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, saying the move could set a problematic precedent for future benefits awards.

“The science is not there, and what we do depends upon science,” said Paul Lawrence, under secretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But advocates for so-called “blue water Navy” veterans argued that VA officials are willfully ignoring an abundance of evidence showing veterans’ exposure to toxic chemicals, and demanding evidence that could only have been collected more than four decades ago.

“These people were exposed, how much they were exposed doesn’t make a difference,” said Rick Weidman, executive director at the Vietnam Veterans of America. “And you can’t put that all together 40 years later.”

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2018/08/01/va-officials-strongly-oppose-congress-blue-water-navy-benefits-fix/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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