Senator Jim Webb wants to stop what began 40 years ago

Tell Senator Webb and the rest of congress that this began when they decided to spray Agent Orange no matter what it would do to the men and women they already sent to risk their lives. Any delay in doing the right thing finally is making them suffer for having served. In case Senator Webb forgot, many of these men had no choice in going but were forced to under the draft. They served with honor. They served with courage. They served as well as the others who went willingly. Now after all these years, there should be on more acceptable excuses for not honoring that at least.

The following was sent from Shelia over at
Agent Orange Quilt of Tears/

Webb: Delay AO Claims, Stop Bigger Raises
by Tom Philpott
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,215720,00.html?wh=wh
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chief architect of the pricey Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era, could become a new champion, for taxpayers, against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims.
Webb, a former Navy secretary and decorated Vietnam War veteran, risked the anger of thousands of veterans from that war when he won Senate approval last week of an amendment to block, at least temporarily, the Department of Veterans Affairs from paying new disability claims on three prominent diseases presumed linked to wartime herbicide exposure.
As many as 86,000 Vietnam veterans with ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B-cell leukemia are awaiting a final VA regulation to receive disability compensation based on a decision last fall by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki of evidence linking these diseases with exposure to deadly defoliant used during the war. Many more vets could file first-time claims.
VA officials not only have published interim regulations already but, for months, have been encouraging veterans stricken with these diseases, or their surviving spouses, to file new claims or re-file claims as soon as possible because benefits would be paid back to claim filing dates.
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