Wednesday, September 25th, Senate and House VA Committees held separate hearings regarding the health of the VA system.  The sudden rush is due to the upcoming two-week break and the possible legislative package both committees are eyeing that could include changes on VA medical and benefits policies.  Here is what you need to know:

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs committee had a hearing Wednesday morning in regards to toxic exposures.  The VA and outside experts testified on the department’s decision making process in toxic exposure benefits cases in order to examine the VA’s presumptive disability decision-making process.

Chairmen Johnny Isakson (R-GA) opened the hearing by stating that the committee had approved to cover Blue Water Veterans and that had opened up a door to other veterans that have been exposed to chemicals and pollutants do to a more modern warfare.  He also showed concern in the process of adding presumptive illnesses to the list covered by the VA.

Ranking Member Jon Tester (D – MT) showed his disappointment in Secretary Wilkie’s reluctance to immediately include the 4 new presumptive illnesses that studies have shown to be caused by exposure to agent orange.   Those include bladder cancer, hypertension, hyperthyroidism, and parkinson-type syndrome.  Tester asked that Veterans be seen for these illnesses immediately and covered by the VA. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie had promised a decision by the June deadline, but now that the deadline has passed has made no statement about when these Veterans with these illnesses will be able to seek care.

“There is absolutely nothing stopping the Secretary from making a decision on these four illnesses right now. The VA is outliving these Veterans and that’s simply not right.”

Dr. David Butler, Director of the Office of Military and Veterans Health, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine testified in favor of adding the presumptive illnesses due to ample research.  Dr. Butler asked the committee for legislation to assemble two panels that would:
have an open process for nominating exposures and health conditions for review, involving all stakeholders in this process
a revised process for evaluating scientific information on whether a given exposure causes a health condition in veterans, including a revised set of categories to assess the strength of the evidence for association and an estimate of the numbers of exposed veterans whose health condition can be attributed to their military exposure
a consistent and transparent decision-making process by the VA
a system for tracking the exposures of military personnel (including chemical, biological, infectious, physical and psychological stressors), and for monitoring the health conditions of all military personnel while in service and after separation
an organizational structure to support this process.
Shane Liermann, Assistant National Legislative Director of Disabled American Veterans (DAV) closed the hearing by saying that there shouldn’t have to be a lengthy process in granting treatment for Blue Water Veterans or other Veterans exposed to toxic chemicals while serving our country.  

“There are cases where the VA already knows where the ship was.  They don’t have to reconstruct hundreds of thousands of millions of doc pages to have the documents to prove.  For example De Nang Harbor. Veterans served on ship in De Nang Harbor but never went on shore. They were not considered in country.  They (VA) already have all of that information on those Veterans.  There’s enough information for them to make decisions right now on cases.”