Up to 1 million exposed to Camp Lejeune's toxic water

Bill to help Camp Lejeune water victims faces uphill fight


BY BARBARA BARRETT

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- Legislation that could offer health care to hundreds of thousands of victims of water contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C., continues to have trouble gaining traction on a debt-wary Capitol Hill.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who sponsored the bill, would like to see it approved in the coming month by the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, where he's the top Republican.

"I hope my colleagues will agree that this is the right thing to do," Burr said.

But the bill is controversial. At a hearing in the committee Wednesday, both the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs said they oppose the legislation, calling it overly broad and possibly unnecessary.

And some of the nation's veterans service organizations say they have serious problems with it, too.

Burr's bill, the Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act of 2011, would require Veterans Affairs to pay for the health care of any veteran or family member whose ailment can be linked to water contamination at Camp Lejeune. He submitted it during the previous Congress as well.

It was one of about three dozen veterans-related bills discussed at the meeting. Committee members will decide which should be brought forward for detailed discussion and a committee vote, called a mark-up.

Up to a million people are thought to have been exposed to contaminated water from the mid-1950s through 1987.


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