Lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would recognize
the health hazards posed by oil well fires, burn pits and other pollution
sources in Afghanistan and much of the Middle East — an effort they say would
help ill veterans who apply for VA benefits.
The “Veterans Burn Pit Exposure Recognition” bill, S. 2950,
would declare that service members who deployed to the Middle East in the
1990-1991 Persian Gulf War and after, to Afghanistan and Djibouti following
Sept. 11, 2001, and to Iraq beginning in 2003 were exposed to toxins.
The bill stops short of establishing service connection for
specific diseases and does not guarantee disability benefits for ill veterans.
But it would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to
concede that veterans were exposed to pollutants if they served in the named
locations during the specified time frames, effectively eliminating a need for
them to prove that they were in close proximity to a pollution source.
Sponsors Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,
say the legislation is needed because currently, VA requires veterans to show
evidence of their exposure to support benefits claims and frequently rejects
claims on the lack of evidence on exposure.
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