House Veterans Committee Leaders Push To Reform Disability Claims Process For Exposure To Toxic Substances
The Veterans Administration would have to cover more veterans who were exposed to poisons during their service under a sweeping bill sponsored by leaders of the House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee.
The bill would provide coverage for as many as 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxic substances.
"We have to do more for these veterans," said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Norfolk, who is chair of the committee's disability assistance subcommittee and one of the sponsors of the bill.
The key is that it says there is now a presumption that ill veterans were exposed to toxics, which means they would no longer have to prove exactly where or when they were exposed, Jon Stewart, the actor and film-maker who has been campaigning for this change for years, said during a news conference.
The toxic substances, particularly in burn pits or air pollution, were so common in war zones that the presumption an ill veteran came into contact with them and that it was that exposure that sickened them is only right, he said.
"These guys have put in place a framework that is going to address this injustice forever," Stewart told the Capitol Hill press conference, pointing with his thumb at the bill's key sponsors: Luria, Veterans Affairs Committee chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif., and committee members Raul Ruiz, D-Calif. and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.
The bill requires the VA to concede a veteran was exposed to toxins based on location and dates of service. It says that presumption applies for 23 cancers and respiratory illnesses related to burn pits or airborne pollution.
In addition, it expands the presumptions already in place for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, to cover hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, an abnormal protein in bone marrow that can progress to some forms of blood cancer. The Agent Orange presumption would also be expanded to cover veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
The bill sets a presumption of exposure to radiation for veterans who participated in clearnup activities at Enewetak atoll, the site of 43 nuclear bomb tests in the 1940s and 1950s, and Palomares, Spain, where a B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed in 1966.
The VA and Department of Defense would be required to improve data collection, and require the VA to provide standardized training to improve processing of toxic exposure claims and to do more to reach out to veterans who were exposed.