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House bill could expand Agent Orange claims

Legislation granting Air Force and Navy veterans a better shot at receiving disability benefits for Agent Orange-related illness now has 204 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, 14 short of the number needed to guarantee passage.

The bill, HR 2254, is the Agent Orange Equity Act. It would grant people who served in the waters off Vietnam and the airspace above it the same presumptions as people who set foot there: that certain diseases are the result of exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange, widely used to defoliate jungle around U.S. bases and outposts.

If enacted, the bill would cover veterans who had received a Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal or who served on Johnston Island, a Navy outpost, beginning April 1, 1972, and ending Sept. 30, 1977.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman who is the measure’s chief sponsor, said the bill goes a long way toward providing benefits to veterans whom the Veterans Affairs Department “illogically refuses to acknowledge.”

“Current law requires VA to provide care for service members exposed to Agent Orange by virtue of their ‘boots on the ground,’ but ignores veterans that served in the blue waters and the blue skies of Vietnam,” Filner said. His bill would provide the same presumptions “to all combat veterans of the Vietnam War, regardless of where they served.”

Filner said he hopes Congress acts soon. “Time is running out for these Vietnam veterans. Many are dying from their Agent Orange-related diseases, uncompensated for their sacrifice.”

Achieving the 218 votes needed to guarantee passage of a bill through the House does not guarantee the change will become law. There is a Senate version of the bill, S 1939, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that has eight co-sponsors, far short of the 51 needed to guarantee passage.