_____________________________________________________________________
From:
"Bobby Broneske" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 10:54:33 AM
Subject: FW: IMPORTANT - Agent Orange Amendment
______________________________________________________________________
CALL TO ACTION, NOW! TAKE ACTION AND
SPREAD THE WORD!
We had won this one and now the senate wants to take it back.
Please pass this on and call both Senators from your state.
FYI. The attached has been introduced in the US Senate by
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
This amendment would significantly restrict Agent Orange
benefits, including the three most recent gains for ischemic
heart conditions, Parkinson’s disease, and B-cell hairy
Leukemia. Apparently the attached amendment has been offered
to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations
Bill. VVA vigorously opposes this amendment.
It changes the Agent Orange Act to require a “causal
relationship” rather than “positive association”
of certain illness to Agent Orange exposure in order to receive
benefits. This will mean that most diseases would no longer
be covered if you can’t prove that your illness was
directly caused by Agent Orange and could not have been caused
by another source. This would effectively undermine the expansion
that the VA did for diabetes, certain cancers and ischemic
heart disease.
It is worth noting that after not funding ANY research on
Agent Orange and other toxins that Vietnam and other generations
have been exposed to, now some want to make us prove that
there is a particular causal relationship, as opposed to a
strong association.
Just on the grounds that this is the most major change in
Agent Orange law in twenty years, and the fact there has been
no hearing on this proposal, it should be rejected out of
hand. But, YOU have to take action! Go to http://capwiz.com/vva/home/
Reportedly Senator Coburn has said he will insist on a vote.
Please e-mail and/or call your Senators tonight, both their
Washington, D.C. office as well as their office(s) in your
state.
|