The Honorable Johnny Isakson, Chairman
Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
United States Senate
412 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Jon Tester, Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
United States Senate
825A Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Tester:
On behalf of the millions of veterans we represent, we urge
you to take every action necessary to ensure that a vote is held by the
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and then the full Senate, on H.R. 299, the Blue
Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018, as soon as possible before the 115th
Congress concludes. This bipartisan legislation was passed by the House earlier
this year by a 382 to 0 vote. It is now time for the Senate to follow suit by
swiftly passing H.R. 299.
This legislation would reverse an erroneous decision by the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2002 that made thousands of Vietnam
veterans – commonly called “Blue Water Navy veterans” – ineligible for health
care and benefits connected to illnesses caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
VA’s decision to issue new administrative rules requiring that a veteran,
“…must have actually served on land within the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) to
qualify for the presumption of exposure to herbicides” (M21-1, Adjudication
Procedures Manual, Part III, Paragraph 4.24(e)(1)) was not based on any new
scientific evidence or changes in law, and should therefore be reversed.
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