A Message to Congress and to Veterans Groups

A Message to Congress and to Veterans Groups

In 2002, the Blue Water Navy was removed from eligibility, finalizing the DVA's policy changes that resulted in the "boots on the ground only" eligibility for presumptive exposure to Agent Orange [herbicides containing dioxin].

Now we have a new bill, introduced in 2009. It is worded incorrectly to be a restoration bill, because already outside groups have piled on. Consequently as it was in 2008 and has been from its introduction in May of 2009, the Agent Orange Equity Act is far too expensive, even for a spendthrift Congress. And thus it sits in committee, bloated and unable to move.

We have asked the Chairman repeatedly to alter the language and restore it to the 2008 version and limit it to that. At the same time we have asked the Chairman repeatedly to introduce a companion bill, a proposed Agent Orange Supplemental Act, that will authorize benefits for any Vietnam Era Veteran who served outside of the Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia theater of Combat Operations, but served in a location where herbicides were used, stored, or transshipped. Such exposure would be proven by military service records of duty stations and dates, and by comparison to Department of Defense documentation of the presence of herbicides at that location and during the date the Veteran served there.