PTSD - Medical Maijuana: Gary Storck: Sen. Fitzgerald’s a hypocrite on veterans

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, sees no problem in using veterans and active duty military as props in the Capitol holiday tree lighting ceremony, but when it comes to helping them deal with service-related disabilities, he apparently couldn’t care less.

Fitzgerald’s true concern for veterans became evident in comments from his spokesperson Andrew Welhouse opposing the new medical cannabis bill, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. The JRMMA was introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, and includes post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition.

Fitzgerald should find the courage to explain his position to Erin Silbaugh, a 28-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war. The former Marine sergeant from Lodi attended the bill’s press conference recently at the Capitol.

Silbaugh returned from Iraq with PTSD, and soon found that cannabis helped treat his symptoms much better than the numerous drugs prescribed by the VA, each with its own laundry list of side effects.

I’m forced to hide within my own country to be able to use medicine that helps me,” Silbaugh said at the news conference.

I guess Fitzgerald is just taking a cue from his Assembly colleague Rep. Keith Ripp, R-Lodi. Last session when Silbaugh asked Ripp if it was fair that he should face arrest and jail for using his medicine to treat his service-related disability, Ripp simply shrugged his shoulders.

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VIETNAM VETERAN WITCH HUNT: Agent Orange debate isn't over

More than 84,000 Vietnam veterans afflicted with heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B-cell leukemia are drawing disability compensation today thanks to a decision by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki to expand the list of ailments presumed caused by exposure to herbicides, including Agent Orange, used during that war.

Though these payments comfort veterans and their families, they have upset some Republican senators who argue they are "unfair" to fellow veterans and taxpayers, and drive up VA compensation claims at a time when budgets are tightening and needs are expanding for new veterans.

"We are transferring a half million dollars to veterans under this decision by Secretary Shinseki for people who weigh 350 pounds, smoke three packs of cigarettes a day, and have hypercholesterolemia because they will not take their medicine," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., complained to colleagues during floor debate on his recent amendment to tighten the law.

Coburn's amendment to the Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs Appropriations Act of 2012 was tabled on a motion from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Coburn will continue to try to narrow the Agent Orange law and trim back authority of the VA secretary for expanding the list of presumptive diseases, said his press aide, Becky Bernhardt.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, endorsed Coburn's amendment.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam veteran like McCain, voted with fellow Democrats to table the amendment. But Webb, who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, later released a statement saying he agreed with Coburn that the 1991 law "is too vague" and "gives too much discretion to the secretary of veterans affairs."

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Legislation 2011: Agent Orange Relief For Vietnam: Rep. Filner’s Bill Offers Hope

If ‘justice for all’ were more than misty sentiment appended to a perfunctory ‘pledge of allegiance,’ H.R. 2634 — a bill seeking broad and long delayed remedial action on behalf of all Vietnam Era victims of Agent Orange — would sail through Congress and gain swift approval from the President.

Introduced by California Congressman Bob Filner, the senior Democrat on the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee, the proposed ‘Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act’ challenges our lawmakers and our nation to finally confront and repair the chemically induced public health and environmental wreckage that remains the most shameful and unresolved legacy of the U.S. war against Vietnam.

H.R. 2634 is unique in that, presenting upfront the case of the victims in Vietnam, the bill recognizes the failure of American policy as we now approach four decades since the war’s end to recognize the heavy responsibility our government bears for the human suffering and environmental devastation resulting from our chemical assault on the people and land of southern Vietnam.

But the bill by no means limits its remedial reach to the victims within Vietnam. There are generous provisions that will expand programs and research to benefit our own veterans, and create medical centers “designed to address the medical needs of descendants of the veterans of the Vietnam era.” In essence this means that, as in Vietnam, there would be a presumption that certain birth anomalies among the children and grandchildren of exposed victims would be recognized as resulting from contact with Agent Orange.

If you want to see the face of justice as it applies to the unfinished business surrounding the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, give the H.R. 2634 (linked here) a thorough read, and find a way to support it. Will H.R. 2634 get far in today’s troubled political climate? It certainly should, but it’s not very likely.

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Contact Your Sentor tell them to vote against Coburn's Amendment - Bill would change standards for Agent Orange Victims

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To the editor:

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is adamantly opposed to an amendment proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to change the manner in which presumptive disabilities related to exposure to Agent Orange would be determined.

The senator wants to require Vietnam veterans to prove a positive connection between Agent Orange exposure and one or more of the 15 presumptive illnesses that the VA now recognizes. We cannot allow this amendment to pass.

Most Vietnam veterans never knew of the existence of Agent Orange before 1980. Even the veterans who actually did the spraying did not know what they were spraying. For years the government denied any knowledge of dioxin, much less its effects. For years, the VA denied any link to the myriad of maladies that Vietnam veterans suffered from Agent Orange exposure.

Then, finally, the government made admissions. Finally, the VA admitted the link and awarded disability compensation, but not retroactive to the dates of service. The government avoided paying millions of dollars in compensation.

Vietnam veterans have suffered enough from the government deceit. For decades the government denied exposure to Agent Orange made Veterans sick. Now that the VA secretary has determined he has the scientific evidence required to recognize the disabilities, we cannot allow a change in presumptive rules.

The cost of caring for our nation's veterans continues long after the last shots are fired. America and the United States Congress must live up to that obligation.

Please contact both your U.S. senators and congressman today and tell them that Coburn Amendment No. 564 to H.R. 2055 is a deal breaker with America's veterans.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo

(609) 625-5071

(202) 225-6572



Philip Uecker

Veterans' Liaison for LoBiondo

Philip.Uecker@mail.house.gov



Sen. Robert Menendez

(202) 224-47744



Richard Locklear

Veterans' Liaison for Menendez

richard_locklear@menendez.senate.gov



Sen. Frank Lautenberg

(202) 224-3224



Bob Ford

Senior Vice Commander

VFW Memorial Post 9462

THE SOURCE

Urge your Senator to vote NO - NO on Senator Coburn's Amendment

Please take a look at some of the correspondence received regarding this matter:

The proposed amendment which was tabled could possibly change how AO claims will be awarded

This amendment, that has been offered to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill, changes the Agent Orange Act to require a “causal relationship” rather than “positive association” of certain illness to Agent Orange exposure in order to receive benefits.

This will mean that certain diseases would no longer be covered if you can’t prove that your illness was directly caused by Agent Orange and could not have been caused by another source. This would effectively undermine the expansion that the VA did for diabetes, certain cancers and ischemic heart disease.

This vote hasn’t been scheduled yet, but is expected to come up soon as Coburn has said he is insisting on a vote. Please share this post!!


**See Vietnam Veterans of America Press Release for more information about Senator Coburn's amendment.

**Motion to Table Coburn Amdt. No. 564

Time for everyone to contact your US Senator, urging a "NO" vote on this damaging and totally unnecessary amendment that is intended to not only reverse the recent additions of diabetes, ischemic heart disease and certain cancers; but, also to undermine and/or "gut" P. L. 102 -4, which too many of us fought a ten plus year battle getting enacted by Congress and signed by Bush the First in February 1991.

Rep. Young Introduces Legislation To Expand Veterans’ Access To Medical Care

Alaskan Congressman Don Young has introduced H.R. 2203, legislation that would establish a pilot program allowing veterans in Alaska who receive benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to have the choice of receiving care at non-VA medical facilities. Specifically, Alaskan veterans would be able to receive medical care at any facility or medical provider that currently receives payments under Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE or the Indian Health Program. H.R. 2203 is the companion legislation to S. 1146, introduced by Senator Begich.


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IMPORTANT LEGISLATION 2011: Moran's News Commentary: Chemicals & the Endocrine System

This skyrocketing number of cases raises serious questions about whether something is seriously wrong with our environment.

Many studies point to correlations between suspected chemicals and the delicate human endocrine system, which includes the thyroid, pancreas, and hypothalamus in your brain, all of which work to produce and manage the hormones that regulate the body's growth and development, metabolism, and sexual development and function. From regulating body temperature to our sleep cycle, this critical system controls many of the non-immediate reactions in our bodies.

Even small changes to this system can dramatically affect a person's well-being.

To combat this problem, I am teaming with Senator John Kerry to introduce legislation, the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011 (EDCEEA), that will expand research and review on the most suspect of the more than 80,000 EDCs that appear in many household products.

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Legislation 2011 - Bill would let federal health researchers ban certain chemicals

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Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011

If the bill were to become law, the NIEHS, a part of the National Institutes of Health, could have chemicals outlawed much sooner than otherwise possible.

The chemicals, which can be either naturally occurring or artificial, are found in everyday products like detergents, flame retardants, foods and cosmetics. Researchers have found they interfere with the function of hormones and could adversely affect human health.

Research into endocrine-disrupting chemicals began when biologists started noticing bizarre reproductive problems in many wildlife populations. One of the most famous examples from the 1970s, DDT, accumulated at higher and higher concentrations up the food chain, nearly driving the bald eagle, which preys on large fish and other birds, to extinction.

Adult bald eagles didn't immediately die from DDT, but the chemical affected their ability to produce healthy offspring. That's what many fear is happening to humans too, as we sit at the top of our food chain and expose ourselves to many types of endocrine disruptors, like BPA, through the products we use every day.

"We are almost like a third world country when it comes to regulating chemicals," vom Saal said. "It's very difficult for people interested in the public's health to understand how does this become a political, partisan, issue when people on both sides have family that are showing diseases related to these chemicals. What is going on here?"

H.R. 2359 Safe Cosmetics Act 2011

The Source

It's up to Congress to close gaping holes in the outdated federal law that allows cancer-causing chemicals in baby shampoo, hormone disruptors in fragrance and lead in lipstick.That's what you get when you have a $50 billion industry that's practically self-regulated.

The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 (H.R.2359), introduced on June 24, 2011 by Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., is designed to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients and that ingredients are fully disclosed.

Existing law – the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 – cedes decisions about ingredient safety to the cosmetics industry. Under the current law, the FDA can't require cosmetics companies to conduct safety assessments, and can’t even require product recalls. In a recent example, the FDA could not issue a mandatory recall of Brazilian Blowout hair straightening products even after they were found to contain formaldehyde.

Alaskan Veterans: Begich introduces bill to allow local care for rural veterans

Alaskan Veterans: Begich introduces bill to allow local care for rural veterans

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich announced today he is introducing an act that tries to bridge the gap between veterans in rural Alaska and the health care benefits they earned through service in the military.

The Alaska Heroes Card Act of 2011 would allow Alaska veterans to access care from local clinics and other treatment facilities in their home towns. The provider would then be able to receive payment from the VA.

"Veterans ask me repeatedly, why can't we get to the clinics and hospitals in our communities rather than travel to Anchorage or even Seattle?" Begich said.