In a 69 to 30 vote, the Senate rejected proposed amendment #564 to H.R. 2055, the Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs and related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012. The overall appropriations bill was approved by a 97 to 2 vote. Amendment #564 was proposed by Sen. Coburn (R-OK), and it would have required evidence of causal relationships for presumptions of service-connected diseases associated with Agent Orange and associated herbicide agents. The proposed amendment would have changed the language of 38 U.S.C. § 1116(b) – which outlines the procedure for the Secretary of VA to create a presumption of service connection for diseases related to herbicide exposure. The proposed amendment specified that it would not change section 1116(a) – which includes the list of diseases which VA has already recognized as presumptively due to herbicide exposure. Essentially, amendment #564 was designed to make it more difficult for new conditions to be added to the presumptive list, but it did not affect service connection for those conditions – including several cancers, chloracne, and diabetes type 2 – which are already on the presumptive list. The proposed amendment was met with immediate and vehement criticism by Veterans and Veterans advocates. John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America stated, “This measure is wrong-headed. It is out of touch with science – and with the intent of the Agent Orange Act of 1991. It attempts to undo two decades of policy.”
For more information, please visit: http://www.newsok.com/senate-defeats-sen.-tom-coburn-amendment-requiring-veterans-to-prove-agent-orange-caused-diseases/article/3587357?custom_click=pod_headline_politics.
