they work for SELF

spook;27134 wrote: A friend of mine who is an Army veteran ex Special Forces Vietnam; got his rejection letter this morning; His occupation is Commercial Truck Driver (Since 1970). He applied for PTSD. VA said he had no record of psycho activities, so unless he lost his drivers license and or had road rage to forget PTSD.

:(Sounds like they are closing things down and making it hard to get to 1st base. All the Men and women coming back from the 2 fronts are in the system and Now we (Vietnam vets) are on the other end this time around.

Agent Orange Update

This article was on the military.com site this morning:

Shinseki Stopped Hearing on AO Decision
Tom Philpott | June 10, 2010

Shinseki Stopped Hearing on Agent Orange Decision
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki met with Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, last month to ask that he cancel a hearing on the secretary's controversial decision to add three diseases to the list of Vietnam veteran illnesses presumed caused by exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used in that war.

Akaka reluctantly agreed, an informed source told Military Update. The VA thus avoided a brighter public spotlight, so far, on a decision that will help tens of thousands of veterans but also will add $13.6 billion to VA compensation claims in a single year.

Akaka and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a committee member, are pressing Shinseki outside of the hearing process to explain last October's decision to add heart disease, Parkinson's disease and B-cell leukemia to the list of illnesses presumed caused by Agent Orange.

Several weeks after their meeting, Akaka followed up on a March letter to Shinseki with a new one, this one asking the secretary for more details on the consequences of presuming service-connection for ischemic heart disease to any veteran who can show he stepped foot in Vietnam.

Katie Roberts, Shinseki's press secretary, had no comment on whether the private meeting occurred. She did note in an e-mail that "VA's primary mission is to be an advocate for veterans of all eras" and that "veterans who endure health problems as a result of their service deserve better."
"Throughout the entire Agent Orange review process," Roberts added, "VA has followed the rules created by Congress.

A spokesman for Akaka could not say "what was discussed in a personal meeting." But the committee had scheduled an April 21 hearing on Shinseki's Agent Orange decision. At VA's request that was reset to May 5. But the hearing topic changed again when VA refused to provide witnesses.

"Chairman Akaka remains concerned about the decision and still intends to pursue this matter in the committee," said Jesse Broder Van Dyke. "The hearing could be rescheduled again in the late summer or fall."

Veterans diagnosed with a presumptive Agent Orange disease can file for a service-connected disability rating and monthly compensation. Surviving spouses too can file claims, for dependency and indemnity compensation, if married veterans die of service-connected ailments.

VA issued an interim regulation in March for implementing Shinseki's decision, even cutting the 60-day comment period in half. However, because of the large cost involved, Webb in late May attached an amendment to a war supplemental bill to prevent claims under the newly presumptive diseases from being paid until 60 days after a final regulation is published.
That final rule likely won't be published until fall, at the earliest, but when claims can be paid they will be retroactive the date first filed.

Webb's maneuver is to give Congress more time to study the science behind Shinseki's decision and how the hefty cost -- $42.2 billion over 10 years -- could impact other VA services. It's a particular concern for Akaka.

To stop the regulation from taking effect, both the House and Senate would have to pass a blocking resolution. Veterans' service organizations say that is not likely to happen.

Some critics say Congress, in effect, abdicated its responsibility to stay atop these compensation issues when it passed the Agent Orange Act of 1991, giving the secretary authority to make presumptive disease decisions.
But Webb complained in a June 4 letter to Shinseki that the law was intended "to establish presumption of service connection for relatively rare conditions." Instead, "presumptions have expanded to include common diseases of aging." He noted that the VA secretary added prostate cancer to the list of Agent Orange diseases in 1996 and Type-2 diabetes in 2001.

Today, almost 10 percent of veterans who served in Vietnam are compensated for Type-2 diabetes, Webb said. Adding ischemic heart disease will be "a new dramatic expansion of disability compensation."
Webb, like Shinseki, is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran. But on this issue he is being attacked bitterly through letters, e-mails and online chat rooms by ailing veterans who expected by now to be drawing VA compensation.

It was Webb, in his letter, who revealed that VA twice had declined to testify on Shinseki's Agent Orange decision. It was another source who said Shinseki met with Akaka to ask that no such hearing be held.

In an April 26 letter, Shinseki advised Akaka that ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease, could generate 76,000 new claims this year and retroactive payment for 75,000 claims filed earlier. Another 41,600 heart disease claims are expected in 2011, VA calculated, and another 44,000 could be filed from 2012 through 2015.

Under the Agent Orange Act, VA hires the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) to review the latest scientific evidence that associates herbicide exposure to disease. An updated IOM report is issued every two years.

Akaka's letter to Shinseki May 28 indicates it's the decision on heart disease, the third most common illness among the elderly, that so concerns the committee. The IOM found "inadequate or insufficient evidence" of a link in 2006. In its 2008 update, IOM put heavier emphasis on studies showing a more rigorous tracking of exposure levels. Five of them showed a "strong statistically significant association." So IOM switched ischemic heart disease from a category of "insufficient evidence" to "limited or suggestive evidence."
Veterans waited months for Shinseki to act on the 2008 report. His decision, when finally made, delighted many Vietnam veterans. Akaka and Webb now want to learn a lot more about what went into that decision.

Sen. Webb questions new benefit for Vietnam vets

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/sen-webb-questions-new-benefit-vietnam-vets

This article is from our local paper.

Webb

Here's a new article from military.com in reference to Webb and Senate hearings: (It's interesting that he picks on benefits to Vietnam Vets as his line in the sand to "restoring a proper balance of power between the legislative and executive branches")

September Agent Orange Hearing Set; Webb Wants Answers

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will get the Senate hearing he didn't want.

Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) says he will use a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing -- rescheduled now for Sept. 23 -- to have Shinseki explain his decision to compensate Vietnam veterans, and many surviving spouses, for three more ailments including heart disease.

Shinseki announced last October that ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease and B-Cell leukemia will be added to the list of illnesses presumed caused by exposure to defoliants, including Agent Orange, used to clear jungle in combat areas during the war.

VA projects that the decision will cost $13.4 billion in 2010 alone as it will qualify a few hundred thousand more veterans for service-connected disability compensation.

Those veterans, it now appears, will have to wait at least a few more months before claims can be paid. And there is at least some doubt now they will be paid. That will depend on whether Webb and enough of his colleagues are dissatisfied with the science behind Shinseki's decision.
In an interview in his Capitol Hill office Wednesday, Webb said he was surprised to find among line items in an emergency wartime supplemental bill (HR 4899) a few weeks ago $13.4 billion attributed to "veterans." He asked staff to find out what it would fund.

"It came back this was the Agent Orange law," Webb said. Webb, a highly-decorated Marine from combat service in Vietnam, said this deepened his skepticism over the soundness of that law and how it has been used.
"When the law was passed there were two areas that raised questions for me," Webb explained. "One was the presumption of exposure for anyone who had been in Vietnam; 2.7 million people had an automatic presumption of exposure. And then the notion that the VA administrator, now the secretary of veterans' affairs, has discretion based on scientific evidence to decide a service-connection" to various illnesses. "It's very broad."

Webb amended HR 4899 so claims can't be paid on the three newly-named Agent Orange illnesses until 60 days after a final rule is published.
"This is an area where we have a responsibility to pump for more [information] to tell us specifically how they made the connection. The only appropriate way to do that is say, 'Let's fence the money for 60 days and get some clarification here.' "

Webb said he was unaware on finding the $13.4 billion in the bill that Shinseki had asked Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the VA committee, not to hold a hearing on this issue. Akaka had scheduled one for April, then rescheduled for early May when VA declined to send witnesses.
One theme he ran on in 2006, Webb said, was restoring a proper balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. Too much authority had been conceded to, or usurped by, recent administrations.

Webb said he even fired off a letter to President Obama last December challenging a claim he made as he prepared for a summit on climate change that he would return from Copenhagen with a binding agreement.

"I just felt compelled to say, 'You do not have the constitutional authority to bind the United States to an international agreement. The Congress does." Webb said.

Shinseki's decision on Agent Orange strikes Webb as more proof too much power has been conceded to the executive branch.

It was the Carter administration, he said, that adopted a presumption "that everyone who was in Vietnam was exposed" to Agent Orange. At the time, he said, the decision wasn't "onerous" on VA budgets because the department only had linked Agent Orange to some rare illnesses.

More recently, VA has found links to ailments generally associated with aging, committing VA to pay billions in additional compensation. Webb felt the scientific evidence linking Type II diabetes to Agent Orange in 2001 was soft. He is reluctant to say the same about the three illnesses Shinseki has endorsed until he hears his testimony.

But Webb does intend to question the science behind presuming everyone who served in Vietnam was exposed to defoliants. He knows his own Marine Company was, he said, as were many other units who were engaged in combat in the countryside or handled Agent Orange directly.

"On any given day in Vietnam they say about 10 percent of the people were actually out in direct combat. Percentages are actually higher than that because of rotations...But the majority of the people weren't in combat" where defoliants were used. "That's just the reality of it."

The issue was handled with more precision, he suggested, in the late 1970s when Webb served as legal counsel on the House VA committee.

"The discussions were you could develop a chronological map overlay of where defoliants had been used, and then develop a nexus in someone's service record on whether they had been in those areas. From that you could say whether these conditions would be presumptively acquired. Back then it was very small in numbers."

"Everyone up here wants to help veterans -- no one more than I do. But a lot of people have asked about this. They want to make sure we're really (a) following the law and (b) taking care of people who are service connected. I don't want to be the one person out here doing this. I know Chairman Akaka has joined me in his concerns. The main thing is let's have Secretary Shinseki come forward and explain the causality."

In our interview, Webb said VA wouldn't publish a final regulation until after the Sept. 23 hearing. It was later learned the hearing might fall within the 60-day period, an indication VA officials plan to publish a final rule before the hearing. That would narrow Webb's window to try to block compensation payments if he and colleagues decide such action is justified.

A Brother is trying to Screw us

Its hard to beleive a brother combat Marine is trying to screw us. Breaks my heart.....I don't know if it would help but if someone could find and post Webb's office email address, maybe we could at least get his attention.

Contact Info

http://webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm

His web site basically states, do not send me a letter, I'll never get it.

Once a Marine....

I wonder if Senator Webb would take the same position if he was up for re-election in November. Politicians seem to forget there roots once they get elected. The late Senator Murtha is another example.

Friend?

Even tho a Former Marine ..................

Webb is no friend of the Corps.

The GAMES CONTINUE

Veteran Service Organizations took the VA to court, Judge says publish the rules in 30 Days. We will see, good luck you guys who have put in for it!

http://www.military.com/veterans-report/va-ordered-to-release-agent-orange-rule?ESRC=vr.nl

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

Got my Award Letter for IHD today. I will received 60% disability with another claim for IU pending. The VA did not pay me back pay from my 1st claim in 2008 even though they mention it in the Evidence section of the Award Letter. Going to see my VSO tomorrow about it. But even with that said, I'm a happy camper!!
Semper Fi

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

Charles, if you didn't get the back pay, they have found a way not to pay it. Hate that, but you did get a rating. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

Recieved my VA rating today. Got 30% for PYSD, 30% for heart, 20% for diabetes, 10% for neuropathy left leg, 10% for neuropathy for right leg, 10% for tinnitus, and service connected for hearing loss both ears 0% for a total of 110%, but they use their formula which reduces the 110% to 70%. Because i,m retired with over 20 years I qualify for CDR which allows me to keep my retired pay except for $22.00 a month. I get to keep my retired pay and recieve my full VA pay also. I got 12 months back pay also. Lifes great, I can't complain. If you haven't gone to the VA you need to go As you can see most of mine is from AO.

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

At 70% you should be able to apply for unemployability (SP) which should take you to 100%. That opens up a whole lot of other bennies, like for your spouse and such.

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

Larry, unemployability is fine, but it stops you from making anything more. I know Marines that took a lower rating as it allowed them to keep working, until they decided to retire. It is good for some, but bad for some. Each one has to decide. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

Larry, I don't think that would work for me I'm 76 years old.

Re: AGENT ORANGE~New Study

I applied for ischemic heart disease benefit and received it in about 3 months. I had open heart surgery in 1994. It added to my 100% disability payment by about $300. If you have had heart problems I recommend you apply.