White House: U.S. Can’t Afford Veterans’ Health Care
Without Cuts
Accountability Hearing: How Far Can Peter O’Rourke Hit
Softballs?
VA gets a new top health official, but still searches for
a permanent nominee
Conferees urged to reject Senate-passed TRICARE fee hikes
Postcards Warning of Tricare Dental Changes Are in the
Mail
VA Medical Centers May Be Hurting The Agency’s Veteran
Suicide Prevention Efforts
VA Creates Special Office to Direct $16B Health Record
Overhaul
House creates subcommittee to oversee VA tech
modernization, EHR implementation
Senate plans path ahead for ‘blue water Navy’ benefits
fix
Government shuts down website for doctors searching for
treatment guidelines
Scientists Hunt For A Test To Diagnose Chronic Brain
Injury In Living People
First, Do No Harm – VA Committee Launches Patient
Wellness Investigation
Come Again? Hearing Equipment For Veterans In Need Sat
Unused
OAN News: ‘Noncontroversial’ GI Bill Cuts To Flight
Training Are Unethical
New GI Bill Cuts Pushed Covertly By ‘Obsessed’ Veterans
Committee Staffer: How one Hill staffers obsession to cut pilot training for
veterans will hurt many seeking to become pilots using the GI Bill.
Delaware Valley Veterans Consortium
Falsified Credentials Spell Disaster For Would-Be
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Senate Confirms Robert Wilkie as Secretary of Veterans
Affairs: The new secretary has worked both in government and at private-sector
defense contractors
Coup Insider Curt Cashour Out As VA Press Secretary Say
Sources
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Health Commission. Yes, That One.
Tennessee Former VA Worker Convicted of Defrauding
Veteran of $680K
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Veteran commits suicide hours after being turned away at
VA facility – Rest In Peace
Willow Grove Veterans Memorial Park Helicopter Monument a
Reality
A helicopter is synonymous of all five branches of the
service," said war veteran Ralph Storti, whose monument quest began 14
years ago.
FLASH ALERT - H.R. 299 - BLUE WATER NAVY VIETNAM VETERANS
ACT
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee will hold hearings
on H.R 299 on Wednesday, August 1 at 2:30pm (EDT).
Testimony supporting H.R. 299 Blue Water Navy
Vietnam Veterans Act 2018 will be presented at that time.
The hearing will be held in room 418 Senate
Russell Office Building, Washington, DC.
This will be the last hearing before the Senate send the bill to the
senate floor for vote and passage.
The
bill passed the House on June 25, 2018 by a vote of 382-0.
Please go to
http://capwiz.com/vva/home/ and send the prepared alert to your Senator
requesting their support of
H.R. 299
prior to the hearing and please follow-up with a phone call to their offices.
Lisa Rein V Curt Cashour: VA Swipes At WaPo, Blows Off
Secretary’s Swearing In
A retired Navy Seabee finally finishes a veterans'
memorial in Pa., 14 years in the making
At Least $10 Million In Taxpayer Funds Blown On
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Mr. Snee Testimony - Copy.mp4
The Forgotten South Vietnamese Airborne
How the Defense Department Identifies the Remains of Our
War Dead
Information, courtesy of Veterans for Change and
Commander (Ret.) John Wells.
This week the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a
hearing on the bill on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. VA Under Secretary Lawrence
urged senators Wednesday to vote against legislation that would extend VA
benefits to sailors who served off the coast during the Vietnam War and claim
their illnesses were caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
Not surprising, although it's extremely disappointing,
when VA upper echelon lies through their teeth when it comes to taking care of
all those who have served.
We are asking that everyone, active duty, veteran and
civilian continue calling your Senator’s offices in Washington, requesting that
they please vote to pass H. R. 299. You can call either 202-224-3121 or the
toll-free number 866-272-6622. We are asking that you please call every week
and share this information with friends and family asking they too make the
calls weekly.
• The VA position opposing the bill was a complete
reversal of former Secretary Shulkin’s testimony in support at the Oct 24, 2017
House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.
• Dr. Erickson’s testimony that ships did not distill
water within 12 nautical miles of land is untrue. The Institute of Medicine
found that this guidance was routinely ignored. Actually, water was routinely
distilled for the boilers close to land and in harbors and there was no
prohibition against that. Since the same distillation system was used for both
boiler water and potable water the entire system would have been contaminated.
• Under Secretary Lawrence testified that the Navy ships
were “miles offshore.” That is untrue. Some ships were anchored in harbors just
a few feet from shore and often in the discharge path of the river discharge.
Studies discovered that toxic level of dioxin remained in the harbor sediment
20 years after the war in Nha Trang Harbor. Another study showed that dioxin
that was accidentally spilled into the Passaic River in New Jersey was found in
seafood 150 nautical miles from shore.
• Dr. Erickson’s testimony that the Australian study was
flawed, as was the methodology used is untrue. The theory behind the enrichment
of the dioxin during the distillation process is based on Henry’s Law of
thermodynamics. Two separate committees of the Institute of Medicine reviewed
and affirmed the methodology used and the enrichment effect of the dioxin
process.
• Dr. Erickson testified that “The Australian format
allowed them to draw water close to shore. You cannot go from that experiment
and make a conclusion about U.S. naval personnel." Dr. Erickson is wrong.
Most Navy ships operated in the bays harbors and close shore waters to maximize
their field of fire.
• Under Secretary Lawrence’s statement that the Institute
of Medicine could not confirm the contamination of the bays harbors and
estuarine waters is misleading. The Committee indicated that due to the passage
of time they could not confirm the presence of Agent Orange with certainty but
that there was a plausible path for exposure. The Committee went on to note
that there was no more or less evidence to support exposure among the blue
water Navy veterans than there was among the ground force and brown water
compatriots. Several IOM Committees since have indicated it is generally
accepted that the dioxin entered the estuarine waters. One IOM committee
specifically recommended that the Blue Water Navy personnel not be excluded
from the presumption.
• Under Secretary Lawrence’s statement that the Blue
Water sailors can receive benefits on a case by case basis is patently false.
Claims are routine rejected based on a lack of “boots on the ground.” The VA’s
own adjudication manual requires the rejection of claims if the veteran was not
on land or served in the internal rivers. While a ship moored to the pier may
be covered if the veteran went ashore, ships anchored a few feet off the coast
are not covered.
• The term “inland waters” has been defined by national
and international es inland waters, this includes the waters landward of the
demarcation line marking the start of the territorial seas. All bays and
harbors and most estuarine waters are covered in this definition of inland
waters. The VA has repeatedly ignored the law on this subject in formulating
their flawed policy. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rejected the VA
definition and methodology in Gray v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 313 (2015).
• The dynamics here are fairly straight-forward, The
herbicides were mixed with petroleum. Petroleum floats. It flowed down the
rivers and streams and washed off the land mass into the bays and harbors.
Tidal action took it to the South China Sea. It was taken into the distillation
plant suction. Some emulsified and fell to the sea bed where maritime traffic
would stir it up causing it to float up to the distillation intake. The
distillation process enriched the dioxin. The same system used for potable
water made water for the boilers.
Paul Sutton
Take It To Heart: VA Cardiologist Gets 20 Months In The
Slammer For Fraudulent Billing
The Opposite Of Your Job: Former VA Employee Defrauds
Disabled Veteran Of $680,000
Dioxins and their effects on human health
VA rips 'Blue Water' Agent Orange bill, urges Senate to
sink it
VSO Beer Garden: Celebrating our Vietnam Veterans
AMNESIA: IT Updates For GI Bill System To Cost $70
Million
Department of Veterans Affairs opposes enactment of H.R.
299, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on
H.R. 299, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held legislative
hearing on August 1, 2018, on nine pending bills before the Committee. VVA
testimony at the hearing focused on our support for H.R. 299, the Blue Water
Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which passed the House on June 25, 382-0.
The Department of Veterans Affairs during their testimony
presented by the Undersecretary for Benefits, Paul R. Lawrence, opposed passage
of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veteran Act because there’s still no credible
scientific evidence to support extending Agent Orange-related benefits to
shipboard personnel who never went ashore in Vietnam or patrolled its rivers.
Without such evidence, he said, it would be wrong, and would create a
disastrous precedent, to award VA benefits. VA also is opposed to paying for
the provisions of this bill by increasing the cost that some veterans must pay
to access their home loan benefits. Veterans will either have to finance the VA
funding fee with interest, or pay up front with cash. This means fewer veterans
will buy homes or will buy homes using non-VA options, potentially opening them
to predatory lenders. However, Rick
Weidman, VVA Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs stated before
the Committee that Congress already presumes veterans who served anywhere in
Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange and doesn't try to calculate the level of
exposure. “That benefit of the doubt should be applied to shipboard personnel
too. ”How much exposure makes no difference.”
Senator Gillibrand, D-NY, cosponsor of the companion bill
S.422, stated those who served on the ground and on the rivers of Vietnam are
already able to claim Agent Orange benefits, and “it doesn’t make any sense” to
exclude the blue water sailors, said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York. “I
think this is an injustice that we can and must rectify,” as she testified
before the committee supporting passage of H.R. 499.
Chairman Isakson has considered the Blue Water Navy
Vietnam Veterans Act a top priority for the committee and last week’s hearing
was held to ensure that the committee is not overlooking needed improvement to
the bill.
The Senate as well as the House are now in recess.
VVA will continue to advocate and request your grassroots
support on behalf of our Blue Water Navy Veterans until justice prevails and
the bill become law.
Department of Veterans Affairs opposes enactment of H.R.
299, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act
To view the hearing and witness testimonies go to:
You must scroll down on the page to download witness
testimonies.
Returned Korean War dog tag belonged to Army medic: The
lone military identification tag that North Korea provided with 55 boxes of
human remains last month belonged to Master Sgt. Charles H. McDaniel, an Army
medic from Indiana who was killed in the opening months of the Korean War.
Senate Has 'Serious Concerns' With Blue Water Navy Bill
After Recent Hearing
Don't Forget to Meet With Your Representative This August
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