July 19, 2007
Press Release
Contact: Mokie Porter: 301-996-0901
VVA Applauds Court Decision to Pay Retroactive Benefits To Veterans and
Their Families for Illnesses Caused by Exposure to Agent Orange
(SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS)--“Vietnam veterans have won a smashing victory
over the VA’s foot-dragging refusal to honor the Consent Decree it
signed sixteen years ago about readjudicating claims and paying
retroactive disability benefits when the VA determines that a condition
is presumptively service-connected because of exposure to Agent Orange,”
said Vietnam Veterans of America President John Rowan.
“VVA applauds today’s decision of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit in the case of Nehmer, et al. v. United States
Department of Veterans Affairs,” Rowan said. That decision affirmed a
lower court decision that the VA is obligated by law to pay disability
benefits to the veterans suffering from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia as
a result of their exposure to Agent Orange. VVA agrees, Rowan said, with
the court that the “performance of the United States Department of
Veterans Affairs has contributed substantially to our sense of national
shame.
“VVA shares the hope that the court expressed so well in the last
paragraph of the decision that this litigation will now end, that our
government will now respect the legal obligations it undertook in the
Consent Decree some 16 years ago, that obstructionist bureaucratic
opposition will now cease, and that our veterans finally will receive
the benefits to which they are morally and legally entitled.”
Rowan added: “It is our hope that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs will
move immediately to implement the decree fully. If not, then all VA
officials involved should be held liable for contempt in the ‘Show
Cause’ hearing scheduled to be heard in Federal District Court on
Monday, July 23.” |
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