Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons, both D-Delaware, joined 41 Democratic senators in denouncing the Donald Trump administration for blocking
critical benefits to veterans suffering from health conditions associated with
their exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
The letter specifically called on the administration to stop
denying scientific evidence, and end the years-long delay of adding bladder
cancer, hypothyroidism, parkinsonism and hypertension to the Department of
Veterans Affairs’ list of service-connected presumptive conditions.
“Your
administration’s refusal to add these conditions to the presumptive list
continues to deny more than 190,000 sick and aging veterans the health care and
compensation they have earned and desperately need,” wrote the senators. “More
Since the Agent Orange Act of 1991, VA has established a
presumption of service-connection for 14 diseases associated with Agent Orange
exposure from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
reports. However, in a recent report required by Congress in the fiscal 2020
appropriations bill, VA called into question the scientific evidence put forth
by the National Academies of Medicine, noting “significant concerns and
limitations” in the findings of NASEM scientists. VA also cited additional
requirements in the Department’s standards for presumptive conditions, delaying
the consideration of care and compensation for thousands of suffering veterans.
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