Last year, a group of federal scientists was debating whether as many
as 2,100 Air Force veterans should qualify for cash benefits for
ailments they claimed stemmed from flying aircraft contaminated by Agent
Orange.
An outside panel of experts had already determined that the scientific evidence showed the vets were likely exposed to the toxic herbicide.
The scientists within the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs agreed the airmen had a strong case. But they had a more
calculated concern: If the VA doled out cash to these veterans, others
might want it too, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot.
The group put their worries in writing. In a draft memo, they warned
the secretary of Veterans Affairs that giving benefits to the airmen
might prompt “additional pressure” from other veteran groups.
Such political and financial concerns aren’t supposed to play into
decisions about Agent Orange benefits, veterans advocates and some legal
experts say. Federal law requires that, in most cases, these decisions
be guided strictly by science.
But an examination of two recent cases illustrates how dueling
considerations of liability, responsibility and evolving scientific
evidence weigh into VA deliberations.
“This shows what we’ve already suspected: At the VA, they’re more
interested in politics, and protecting their turf and their bonuses than
fulfilling their mission to assist veterans,” said John Wells, a
Louisiana lawyer who has spent more than a decade advocating for 90,000
Navy vets fighting for Agent Orange benefits.
VA officials say they are committed to making sure qualified vets get
benefits, and they believe the law allows them to consider the
ramifications of their decisions when weighing the eligibility of new
groups.
“Considering second order effects of a decision does not in any way
violate the Agent Orange Act,” the VA’s general counsel’s office wrote
in response to questions.
For the past year, ProPublica and The Pilot have been examining the effects
Agent Orange has had on a growing group of veterans and their families.
Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, many are suffering an array
of health consequences and are struggling to prove they were exposed. In
interviews, they blame the VA for obstructing their claims through
denials or ever-escalating requests for information, a process some call
“delay, deny, wait till I die.”
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