Well excuse me, it only took twenty minutes not ten days.
There are two new bills in the House of Representatives of importance to Vietnam Veterans.
The first bill, HR 2554, The Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009, was sponsored by Congressman Bob Filner of CA. Mr. Filner is Chairman of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs and he's proposing to to skewer one of the leading opinions of the General Counsel of the Department of Veteran Affairs. This opinion has been simple, that a Vietnam veteran, to be eligible for the presumptive benefits assigned to Agent Orange, or other dioxin, exposure must have boots on the ground in the Republic of Vietnam. Just because Naval vessels serving off the coast of Vietnam distilled seawater, containing dioxins, into drinking water and just because the Royal Australian Navy has proven that distilling seawater containing dioxins RAISES the PPM (parts per million) ratio of dixin levels in the distilled water has absolutely noyhing to do with what tyhe law says, so sayeth the General Counsel.
Well, Filner's bill hopes to change that by redefining a Vietnam Veteran as one who
"(1) during active military, naval, or air service--
(A) served in the Republic of Vietnam (including the inland waterways, ports, and harbors of such Republic, the waters offshore of such Republic, and the airspace above such Republic) during the period beginning on January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975; or
(B) served in Johnston Island during the period beginning on April 1, 1972, and ending on September 30, 1977; or
(2) received the Vietnam Service Medal or the Vietnam Campaign Medal.'."
Now he has four stumbling blocks. It must get out of Committee. No problem, his bill, his Committee. It must pass on the floor of the House. It must go through the Senate VA Committee and than pass on the floor of the Senate before going to the White House. The only major modification to Filner's Bill that I foresee is changing of the eligibility date. Filner wants 25 Sept 1985. If he does that, every denied AO related claim submitted by every sailor or airman for 29 years will have to be reopened. If the claim is approved, the vet's claim will be paid back to his/her original date of claim. I won't even estimate how many billions of dollars that will amount to. Since the VA is currently behind the curve, I can't even tell you long these claims will take to adjudicate. I can tell you that as of last Friday VA had 739,231 claims in work of which 149,782 claims have been pending for over six months. That's a 120,000 claim increase over this same period last year. And it doesn't take into account the 194,556 appeals filed with the Veteran Benefits Administration nor any of the appeals before the Board of Veteran Appeals or the US Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims.
The second bill is HR 3491, The Thomas G. SchubertAgent Orange Fairness Act. This bill, submitted by WI Congressman Steve Kagan has an even bigger stumbling block. He only has one co-sponsor and that's (shudder) Barney Frank of Massachusetts. The bill hopes to add to the list of presumptive diseases related to AO, or other dioxins, the following:
"(I) Cancers of any tissues through the opening of the gastrointestinal tract to the end, including any and all carcinomas arising from tissues of endodermal origin, beginning in the oral pharynx, extending through the esophagus, duodenum, cecum, transverse and descending colon, as well as biliary and pancreatic tissues, not to exclude the rectum, becoming manifest to a degree of disability of 10 percent or more."
There is some scuttlebutt concerning a bill that will include Hypertension and some Cardiac issues as presumptive illnesses related to AO. However, that bill, if it exists, has yet to be introduced to the Congress.
Food for thought. There are currently 221,803 claims pending that are for non-rating issues.
Of those, 33,350 have been pending for m ore than six months. Of those claims the following service center managers need a class in Hari Kiri:
Philadelphia 46,910 of those claims or 21% of the total. Of the claims over six months old, Philadelphia owns 10,016 or 30% of the total;
Milwaukee owns 27,477 and 4,877 respectively; St. Paul owns 26, 406 and 3,440 respectively; and Manila owns 26,102 and 162 respectively. That means 57% of non-rating claims are being handled by 7% of the VA Regional Offices. That ain't good for the vets in those areas.
On rating claims (i.e. those that should pay disability dollars to vets), VA over all has 20.1% of the claims in work for over six months. That's their National Average. However, in the Eastern Region, Wilmington DE and Togus, ME are at 6.4% and 8.6% respectively. In the Southern Region, Huntington, WV and Nashville, TN are at 8.4% and 9.0% respectively. In the Central Region we have Lincoln, NE at 7.2%; Sioux Falls, SD at 7.5%; Milwaukee, WI at 7.6%; St. Paul, MN at 8.9%; and Fargo, ND at 9.3%. In the Western Region only Boise, ID fits in this group at 6.1%. Their Service Center Managers deserve attaboys, except in Milwaukee - give the attaboy to the Assistant SCM as the SCM has to committ Seppuko!
God Bless the Overworked VA Claims Adjudicator.
Gunner Sends
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