As the VA scrambles to find the estimated $5.5 billion dollars (over the next 10 years)  it will take to cover the 90,000 Blue Water Veterans’ disability/pension benefits, another 170,000 Veterans look to be added as well.  With the Appeal Court win for Blue Water Veterans in January, lawmakers are hoping to add Burn Pit Exposure Veterans to the list.

Five years ago the VA’s Burn Pit Registry was launched in an effort to further research the illnesses that might have been caused by exposure to chemical burn pits while serving primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. VA officials are pushing back saying that there hasn’t been enough research on what, if any, illnesses were caused by burn pit exposure.

Lawmakers led by California Democrat Rep. Raul Ruiz showed concern that these veterans will be forgotten by the VA for decades as the Blue Water Veterans were.
“VA has been really good at coming up with excuses as to why they shouldn’t be covering Agent Orange for so many years,” he said. “Our Vietnam veterans understand that song and dance so much.”

“For this generation, we have to stop it as soon as they start talking about excuses.”

Burn pits are not used anymore due to the “unknown” illnesses they might cause.  The VA recognizes that Veterans were exposed to toxic chemicals in the burn pits, but demands proof of how these toxic chemicals affected Veterans.  The fight has just begun and seems to be a priority among the House and Senate VA Committee’s going into spring.