Blue Water Navy Vietnam veterans recently won the support of
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie for a court ruling that could make
tens of thousands of former service members and their survivors eligible for
benefits stemming from exposure to Agent Orange decades ago. But now they are
awaiting the Trump administration’s decision whether to challenge the ruling in
the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Justice Department’s solicitor general’s office is
weighing a challenge to the court ruling, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit. Any decision to appeal the court ruling would put the
Trump administration at odds with Vietnam veterans—and the head of the Veterans
Affairs office. The benefits have been estimated to cost Veterans Affairs more
than $1 billion over 10 years.
The so-called “blue water” Navy vets served in the
territorial waters offshore of the Republic of Vietnam. Until the Jan. 29
ruling by the full Federal Circuit, those veterans had been denied the
presumption of Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War. The Justice
Department, supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs’s interpretation, had
argued that the Agent Orange Act covered only those veterans who served on the
ground or inland waterways of Vietnam.
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