Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Advocate: Government not keeping its promise to veterans
The United
States government owes a debt to its veterans for their service to the country,
said Bart Stichman, special counsel to the not-for-profit National Veterans
Legal Services Program.
He was the
keynote speaker for Friday's symposium on veterans' issues presented by the
University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic: "Pushing the
Envelope: Firsts in Advocacy for America's Heroes."
"The
government made the decision not to pay the cost of war" after Vietnam,
Stichman said.
His
organization was able to get upgrades to discharges for more than 7,000 Vietnam
veterans who received "less than honorable" discharges.
Those with
less than honorable discharges aren't eligible for Veterans Affairs benefits,
and have a stigma attached to them that hurts job prospects.
The
government lowered its requirements for military service to get more bodies to
Vietnam and were surprised when not all performed well, he said.
"No
other employer grades your performance when you leave and says you're
undesirable," Stichman said.
Veterans
were helped by the repeal of two laws, he said. One was a law that barred them
from appealing VA denials to federal courts, resulting in 1988 in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
The NVLSP
has filed more than 5,000 appeals in the court, he said.
The other
law repealed was an 1862 law that made it a federal crime for lawyers to charge
more than $10 to represent a veteran in a claim.
"Probably
our greatest victory has been the 1989 Nehmer case," Stichman said.
It dealt
with veterans who had negative health effects from exposure to Agent Orange, a
chemical defoliant used heavily in Vietnam.
Thailand veterans harmed by Agent Orange hope Congress will hear them
Legislation addresses presumption that Thailand vets weren’t
exposed to herbicides
Vietnam War-era veterans who served in Thailand say they’re
still fighting.
Veterans who served in Thailand have long contended they
face a higher bar in winning Veterans Administration (VA) disability benefits
claims, having to clearly demonstrate they were exposed to Agent Orange or
other harmful herbicides while their fellow veterans enjoy a presumption that
they were exposed.
Several bills in Congress purport to take aim at the
problem. Among them: The Veterans Agent Orange Exposure Equity Act, the Cost of
War Act, and others, including the Fairly Assessing Service-related Exposure
Residual (FASTER) Presumptions Act, also dubbed the “FASTER” Act.
VA Begins Paying New Gulf War Toxic Exposure Compensation
The agency has started paying out the pledged benefits to
veterans exposed to chemical agents during the Gulf War in addition to
compensation for those who served in Vietnam.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has begun processing new
compensation to veterans who suffered toxic exposure during the Gulf War.
Following a statement in May 2021 that the agency would
begin new payouts to veterans who bear health consequences as a result of
napalm and other chemical agents while serving in southeast Asia, VA declared
additional planned compensation for Gulf War veterans.
In the wake of the May 2021 statement, Secretary Denis
McDonough outlined that “[The Veterans Benefits Administration] estimates
approximately 52,000 veterans and 6,000 survivors will be receiving benefit
payments in the first year alone.”