Shinseki defends new Agent Orange benefits - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Shinseki defends new Agent Orange benefits

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki says providing Agent Orange-related disability benefits to Vietnam veterans who have heart disease — even though there are many other reasons they might have the ailment — is a decision that errs on the side of veterans because that is the right and legal thing to do.

The decision also has wide-ranging implications for current veterans because it is a sign that VA will act to provide benefits even years after a conflict is over, Shinseki says in written testimony to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

VA published final rules in August to add ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and B-Cell leukemias to the list of ailments presumed to be the result of military service in Vietnam veterans. As a result, beginning as early as Oct. 20, up to 250,000 Vietnam veterans will become eligible for veterans disability compensation and medical care.

Heart disease is the presumptive illness gaining the most attention because it is a common ailment among the elderly who have had no exposure to Agent Orange, but Shinseki defends its inclusion, noting that nine scientific or medical studies showed a link between the exposure between the herbicide widely used in Vietnam and ischemic heart disease. A 1991 law, the Agent Orange Act, requires VA to presume an ailment is caused by military service when there is such evidence.

“Veterans and their families have waited decades while the science has incrementally revealed more about the impact of Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans,” he said. “Not only did our actions follow the statute, but I believe our actions on Agent Orange will be viewed as an indicator of our seriousness and commitment in addressing veterans needs — not only for Vietnam veterans, but for veterans of every generation,” said Shinseki, a retired Army general and a Vietnam veteran.

Presumptions of veterans disabilities being related to military service, even when there could be other causes, is an “important part of the veterans benefits system for the foreseeable future,” he said. “They are powerful tools for promoting efficiency, fairness and justice” and “particularly significant for the efforts of VA and Congress to ensure the fair and expeditious adjudication of benefits claims at a time when claims are increasing in number, in scope and in complexity.”

The Agent Orange saga also holds a lesson for handling current benefits, he said. “The most important lesson I have learned from this process is that we must track the exposures of our service members to toxic chemicals and the environment earlier,” he said. “Such tracking does not get easier or less complicated as time passes.”