U.S. Senate Approves Blue Water Navy Bill

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In a historic vote by unanimous consent on Wednesday, Senate lawmakers approved legislation to grant benefits for Agent Orange exposure to Navy veterans who served in the waters off Vietnam – culminating a decades-long fight for the thousands of veterans who have been denied claims of presumptive exposure.

The bill passed without opposition. Last year, similar legislation failed in the Senate when two senators blocked a motion for unanimous consent votes, the furthest it had ever moved.

“This is a tremendous victory for our nation’s veterans,” said MOAA President and CEO Lt. Gen. Dana T. Atkins, USAF (Ret). “After years of waiting, Blue Water Navy veterans and their survivors will finally see the benefits they deserve without fear of those benefits being taken away.”

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) reintroduced the legislation at the beginning of the year and, with the full-throated support of Ranking Member Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), built bipartisan support in the House. Last month, the legislation passed the House 410-0.

An estimated 900,000 veterans have been exposed to Agent Orange. This legislation will extend those disability benefits to about 90,000 veterans.

MOAA has long supported legislation that would grant presumptive exposure to Agent Orange to veterans who served on ships off Vietnam’s coast. This bipartisan legislation extends benefits to servicemembers who served in the territorial waters off the coast of Vietnam and were exposed to Agent Orange, which is connected to a variety of cancers and other long-term illness.

A January court ruling will require the VA to provide health care to Blue Water Navy veterans, but H.R. 299 would codify that care while also assisting other groups: The bill provides relief to veterans exposed to Agent Orange on the Korean DMZ, and it also expands benefits to the children of veterans who served in Thailand and suffer from spina bifida.

Amanda Dolasinski is MOAA’s staff writer. She can be reached at amandad@moaa.org. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMOAA.

National Commander asks for support to pass LEGION act

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Legionnaires,
 
The LEGION ACT (S. 504) would expand eligibility for membership in The American Legion. If passed, this act may finally allow the many “previously ineligible cold Warriors” to join the Legion, an action which they have been denied due to the rule that membership can only be for those who served in a congressionally-recognized period of war. We all know many vets who sat alert, traversed under the sea and on the sea and stood watch in thousands of hostile zones regardless of Congress’ declaration of a war period during the cold war and other “in-between” periods; those veterans, too, were ready at a moments notice to fight for their country, and in my and numerous other Legionnaires’ view, deserve to be eligible to join The American Legion.
 
Please support this act — send a letter or email to your representatives asking them to vote in favor of it.
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National Commander asks for support to pass LEGION act
 
The U.S. Senate has passed the LEGION Act, which still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives in order to extend the current recognized period of war back to Dec. 7, 1941. The American Legion is seeking such a designation for military members who served their country with honor but whose service fell in gaps between war eras.
 
“Today, we need your help in contacting your members in the House of Representatives,” American Legion National Commander Brett Reistad said. “The LEGION ACT (S. 504) would expand eligibility for membership in The American Legion. Your representative needs to encourage House leadership to bring the LEGION ACT (S. 504) to the floor for a vote, and to promise to vote for this legislation, to ensure all veterans are able to be recognized for their contributions and sacrifice in service to this country.”
 
The LEGION Act – Let Everyone Get Involved in Opportunities for National Service Act – was introduced Feb. 14 in the Senate by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and passed there by unanimous consent on June 11.
 
“The American Legion must continue to serve as a powerful voice for veterans in our nation’s capital,” Reistad said. “The power of our voice is only as strong as our membership allows us to be. Because The American Legion’s membership periods are congressionally chartered, the organization is prevented from expanding membership eligibility without an act of Congress. These acts expand membership eligibility to honorably discharged veterans that have served on federal orders in unrecognized times of war since World War II. Please reach out to your representative and ask them to pass S. 504.”