The Senate unanimously passed legislation codifying
presumptive disability benefits status for so called “blue water” Vietnam
veterans on Wednesday, sending the bill to the White House to become law.
The move came roughly six months after the measure was
stalled in the Senate by parliamentary objections and just a week after the end
of a legal battle surrounding the Vietnam veterans’ benefits that has drug on
for years.
The legislation, passed unanimously by the House last month,
has been a focus of advocates fighting to ensure nearly 90,000 veterans who
served on ships in the seas around Vietnam are granted the same Veterans
Affairs benefits status as troops who served on the ground or on ships
stationed close to shore.
The move all but ends a years long legal fight over
presumptive benefits for up to 90,000 Vietnam veterans.
Under current regulations, those troops were assumed to have
been exposed to toxic defoliants like Agent Orange, and were given special
fast-track status when illnesses related to that chemical contamination
surfaced later in life.
But in 2002, VA officials ruled that presumptive status did
not apply to the blue water veterans. As a result, they had to conclusively
prove their identical illnesses were a result of toxic exposure and not issues
that occurred after their military service.
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